


In Ruin

by anawitch



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Blood and Gore, Character Death, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mild Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2018-10-01 14:29:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 29
Words: 75,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10192013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anawitch/pseuds/anawitch
Summary: Five years since the outbreak and they've adapted. Now raiders, scientists, and mysterious new friends have complicated things.Alternatively, not even the zombie apocalypse can stop the drama of teenage relationships.





	1. Don't Shoot

**Author's Note:**

> Look. You all knew I wasn't finished with my favourite crack ships. Don't act surprised. 
> 
> Obviously, this fic will contain violence and gore. I've listed the ships in order of their presence in the fic, so if you're here for just Weiss/Blake don't be disappointed if there isn't as much focus on them - they aren't point of view characters but they're in the story enough to warrant their own tag. There will be other relationships and past relationships that aren't listed, including mentions of Roman/Neo in this chapter. Yang/Merc and Ruby/Em should be about equal.
> 
> Finally, usually I finish the fic before I start uploading. That's not the case here (it's going to be... quite long), so I can't promise when it will be updated like I have before. I hope that's okay!

The abandoned vehicles littering the highway were parted down the middle, a narrow passage for travellers to move through so carefully structured that it had to belong to an established settlement, a supply line between the old ransacked town and whatever the survivors had managed to scrape together on the outskirts. In fact, Emerald knew for sure that was exactly what it was for; that was why she waited still in the front seat of the truck, eyes on the road, not as patiently as she had done a few hours ago, but obediently nonetheless.

Though it was January the sky was clear and blue, and it must have been well past midday; sunlight filtered through the cracks and streaks of years old blood across the window, bright and cold and blinding as it moved westwards to what would be another early sunset. She pulled down the visor to block it out, blew on her gloves and rubbed them together to fight the chill, but the friction did little to warm her so she slumped back in the seat instead, curling in around her knees. Against her better judgement, boredom lulled her eyes to a close.

“Boo.”

A hand grabbed her shoulder. Gasping, it wasn’t until her fingers locked around the grip of her gun that she realised her mistake, and it was with a huff of irritation that she shoved Mercury’s chest, pushing him back into the darkness.

“You’re such a _dick_.”

Quickly he re-emerged with a self-satisfied snicker, pulling himself through the partition and climbing between her and the skeleton reclined in the passenger seat. He regarded it, took its hand and dragged it over to tap Emerald with a sharp finger.

“ _What?_ ”

“Bored,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. He put his feet on the dashboard and took the stranger’s arm apart. Any respect for the dead was long gone, along with whoever those bones had once belonged to - only strips of fabric and thread covered them now, the durable denim and ruined linen and the truck itself all that anybody would ever remember them by.

It was kind of sad.

Mercury easily pried the skull from their shoulders. “Think they offed themselves?” A hole between their eye sockets suggested as much, but it could just as easily have been a fight, or maybe other ambushers. But the truck hadn’t been picked clean, so Emerald guessed they probably _had_ been bitten, and she would have said as much, but then Mercury poked his hand up through the skull’s teeth like a morbid bracelet, and she realised he didn’t really care.

“Stop playing with it,” she snapped. “We’re supposed to focus.”

“I was focused. Two hours ago. They probably took a different road.”

“There aren’t any other roads they could use.”

“Probably dead, then.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and leant back in the driver’s seat to stare at the ceiling, coated dark with blood that confirmed her suspicions on their dead companion’s demise. She didn’t focus on it for long - if their targets had died along the way, then Cinder would want her and Mercury to go searching for them, and she really had no interest in following their suicidal path through town. Much easier to let the idiots deliver what they’d found directly to them.

A low hum in the distance answered her silent prayers and she knocked the skull from Mercury’s hand, letting it clatter to the ground hollowly before rolling to a stop between its own two feet. She nodded in the direction of the sound; Mercury nodded back, and crept out the side door.

When it was almost upon them it screeched to a sudden stop, sounds of metal on metal ringing out as it slid and bumped into another stationary car. A woman cursed, a door clicked open - one, two, three sets of footsteps echoed across the deserted highway.

Emerald climbed out the truck.

They didn’t notice her immediately. The woman, hair short and practical, cropped and dark, was too busy ducked down by the front tire inspecting the mysterious puncture with her companions crouched at her side, quiet murmurs of frustration passing between them. When the largest man in their group caught her eye he drew his weapon, but hesitated when Emerald raised her hands above her head in surrender.

“Don’t shoot!” She spoke a pitch higher than she normally would, a little sweeter as she took another slow step towards them. The woman stood and regarded her carefully, eyeing her up and down, determining whether or not she was a danger - it was a test Emerald, young and wide-eyed, always passed. Emerald and Mercury’s method was tried and true, carried out fluidly, effortlessly, from A to B to C.

“Did… did you see anyone else on the road?” she stuttered out.

The woman’s shoulders sank; she released a breath, and her voice held genuine concern when she asked, “Have you lost someone?”

With her hands held by her ears palms towards them, innocent, unthreatening, Emerald nodded. Mercury raised a closed fist from behind their car – _empty._ Just the three of them, then. She watched as the group shared looks, the moment they judged her safe perhaps a second before a bullet shattered the largest man’s skull, before he slumped dead over the bonnet of their car, before the remaining pair grabbed their own weapons and turned to face Mercury, inviting Emerald to take out the second just as quickly.

“Never mind - found him.”

“Wait, please-..”

But whatever plea she had prepared was interrupted by a final bullet, and she fell to the floor amongst the debris of the other desperate victims who’d almost escaped all those years ago.

The echo of the gunshot spread out across the emptiness; she and Mercury paused and listened out for the sounds of unwanted attention, but a minute passed and none of the tell-tale groans of the infected followed.

Job done.

There was a hint of glee in Mercury’s voice as he pulled open the trunk of the dead girl’s car. “ _Never mind - found him._ Damn, Em. That was cold.”

“Shut up,” she replied, but she joined him in claiming their prize anyway, starting with the fresh bodies. All she found was a wallet - she pulled out the ID and glanced it over, surprised to see the dead woman’s face staring back at her, surprised she’d held onto it for so long. _Amber Autumn._

She took it and the money inside.

“You know that’s no good, right?”

Shrugging her shoulders, she said, “I like it.” Back at headquarters she enjoyed counting how much cash she’d stolen, liked imagining how rich she’d be if the world hadn’t gone to shit. Before she’d never had any money. She probably did have a bit of an obsession with it.

“You’re so weird.”

“Says you,” she bit back.

With the supplies loaded into the back of their own car slipped unsuspectedly amongst the wrecks they began the long journey home. Icy wind blew through the cracks in the glass, chilling Emerald even further as she watched the highway fade to countryside, as the piles of cars became piles of flesh and bone, as the sun began to set too soon. A few stragglers lagged behind them, blindly following the sound of movement and whatever else it was that attracted them to the living, but it had been a long time since they’d frightened Emerald. Now they were just something to watch stumbling through potholes, groaning and reaching out for them until they disappeared from sight.

When another stood in the road Mercury swerved into it to knock it down, splattering blood over the windscreen, startling Emerald out of her daydream. Now it was night, sky dark and overcast, spitting rain onto the windscreen. Still, she couldn’t miss the metres high wall that gated their headquarters from the outside world stood tall and imposing as ever as they rolled over the corpse in their approach, and it was impossible, but Emerald swore she heard the irritable sigh of the guard there as he made his way down the ladder, almost definitely disappointed to see them return at all. When he reached them he huffed his orange hair off his face and folded long arms across his chest, leaning down to peer through their window. 

“Oh, look. You survived,” he said, without enthusiasm.

“Who’d you piss off to be put on guard duty?” Mercury asked, grinning as Roman made his way round to the trunk.

“For your information, I like it out here. The miserable weather reminds me of home. Oh, hello - what do we have _here_?”

The sour look on his face sweetened when he pulled out a rucksack full to the brim with little packets of pills, a successful raid on some distant drug store. It was a good haul, even better than they had expected, and she knew-

“ _That’ll_ get her off our backs.” Roman finished her thoughts for her in a quiet murmur beneath his breath and she scowled, stepping out into the drizzle.

“’Our’ backs? We did all the work,” she said, jabbing her thumb towards Mercury as he walked up beside her. Roman ignored her, pulling the strap over his shoulder and taking a second bag – plastic, filled with clothes – under his arm. He and his partner had been around almost as long as they had, and tragically, that meant she knew him pretty well; something was off, but _what_ exactly alluded her, and she’d meant to share a meaningful look with Mercury, but he was already too busy collecting the remaining bags, leaving only a few stray items for Emerald to carry in through the gates behind them.

Decrepit and crumbling buildings greeted them inside as they always did, even less inviting than usual in the dark chill of winter. They paid them no mind; most of them were disused, not even suitable for cells - in fact, of the eleven buildings behind the wall only four were used at all. They made their way to the largest of them, closed off with heavy metallic doors that Roman banged twice on. The camera above it whirred for a moment before it clicked open, folding into its startlingly contrasting interior, where a long, narrow corridor stretched out before them, pristine and white like a hospital – at least it had the same smell to it, the same low ceilings, the same chemical clutter.

“Where’s Neo?” Mercury asked. His limp was more prominent under the weight of their spoils, but it did nothing to hamper his cocky demeanour. Roman only grunted, and it was all the answer they needed.

Cinder pushed open the heavy door to her office, lips curled in pleasure at the sight of them stood before her. “You’ve returned,” she stated, simply.

“Obviously,” Emerald replied. She felt Mercury smirking at her side, surprisingly infectious. “And we come bearing gifts.”

 

* * *

 

After a long day of doing a grand total of fuck all out in the cold Mercury was kind of looking forwards to being back in his room where he could at least do fuck all in relative warmth, but then nothing good ever happened to him, so of course he was roped into a meeting with the crazy scientists instead. The small, hopeful part of him that had yet to be snuffed out told him it might be okay, might even be interesting to hear the latest developments, but even that voice sounded doubtful, so when he sat down across the table from Watts (grand patroniser himself) it was with an attitude he just knew would piss him off, solely because his ire would be better than the silence they usually received sitting at the _big_ table with all the other adults.

Emerald was nervous, but she always was when Salem called for them, and he couldn’t exactly blame her: Salem was one hell of a woman, tall and striking and, he had to admit, a little bit frightening with her unwavering eye contact, her sinister smile, that sickly sweet voice that made his hair stand on end. When she entered the room all eyes were on her, even his, and usually he prided himself on not giving a shit.

She took her seat at the end of the table. A natural silence fell over them.

“There has been a ground breaking development in our tireless research,” she began without so much as an introduction, without even a _good evening, welcome to my lecture._ It seemed pointless – the only ones at the table who didn’t know what went on behind closed doors were him and Emerald, and she’d never hold a meeting just to bring them up to speed.

“Though it has taken some time,” she continued, eyes drifting to Cinder, prompting her to bow her head almost apologetically, “Neo’s treatment has yielded positive results.”

Looks were shared across the table, pleased and smug. What they were doing to Neo he didn’t understand, but he did know she was locked down in the cells with the other experiments, that they had changed her somehow. It was weird to have known her before and to see her now, silent and intense, dangerous, behind bars. Must have been even weirder for Roman. Maybe that was why he was being such a killjoy.

“I am instructing all of you to stay behind the walls until I say otherwise. You will be required to defend the laboratories from any unwelcome visitors, should they arrive. Our research is too valuable to be stopped now. Should this get into the wrong hands…” and she trailed off, leaving it to their imaginations.

When the meeting concluded and the scientists bustled their way out of the office Mercury cocked an eyebrow at Emerald, who shrugged at him in return. WTCH Labs were a fortress, the safest place to be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and he seriously doubted them being locked inside would make any difference to its defences… but it wasn’t like there was much to do outside anyway. No point in questioning a direct order.

Cinder’s outstretched arm slammed between them and the exit, stopping them both in their tracks. There was a tightness in her expression, and the smile on her lips seemed tenser than before. Without her lab coat on he could see tiny pricks in the skin of her bicep.

“Your health checks are next,” she said, throat rasping. “Don’t forget.” And she let them be on their way.

 

* * *

 

_Beneath her feet the floorboards creaked, a whining sound deafeningly loud in the house’s stillness. Her foot hovered an inch above the bare wood and she listened, waiting for the response she knew would come. For a moment only her heart drummed in her ears, fear still thick in her chest no matter how much time passed by, and soon enough the thumps were joined by those below, a rhythmic knocking, slow and lazy, resonating through her until a lump formed in her throat._

_Déjà vu. As always her legs carried her on without her permission through the landing, down the staircase, past photographs she’d never been in, to the room with the chair pushed up against the door handle. There she stopped, though her body still betrayed her – her hand reached forwards in slow motion, towards the door that beat as heavy as her heart, that seemed to throb in its frame._

_She held the handle._

Emerald opened her eyes.

Once her nightmares would throw her from her bed as she gasped out loud and clung to whatever was at hand, desperately anchoring herself to the real world however she could. Now they were nothing more than an annoyance; falling to sleep in the cold, damp room they lived in was difficult enough once a night, let alone twice. In the bed across the room a lump beneath the sheets breathed slowly, spread out on his front as he usually was. Sometimes their dreams would wake the other up, but fortunately for both of them, this time he’d slept right through. _Lucky bastard._

She dug her knuckles into her eyes and blinked away the sleep, pulling herself up above the thin blanket that covered her. She knew well enough that those few hours were all she was getting, and lying around doing nothing maddened her. There was no plan for where to go or what to do; just like in her dream her feet moved onwards, like they had somewhere for her to be but had neglected to let the rest of her in on the secret.

They took her back to the corridor, the one she had walked down a few days before with Mercury and Roman and their bags of loot. Cinder was pleased – her eyes had twinkled with delight, though as always it stayed from her voice, and though she congratulated them it seemed only cursory. The lights were off, but Emerald had been at the labs for almost a year now, and she knew her way around with her eyes closed. Her fingers found the door to the cells easily.

There the lights _were_ on, but that came as no surprise even with how late it had to be - how else would the cameras accurately record what went on inside? Barred cells lined the far wall, and their inhabitants were restless. Animated corpses in various states of decay reached towards her through the gaps in their cages but she paid them no mind, walking past as they moaned their guttural groans. Some of them were new. Some of them she recognised.

She only realised where she was heading when she came to the final cage.

Inside sat a woman with her hands in her lap, staring down at the hard stone beneath her feet, but when she noticed her she rose up and sauntered over, the only living, breathing inhabitant. At 4’11” she was no larger than a child, but Roman swore she was older than them, and before the experiments when she could speak she believed him. Now there was something off about her, something that made her… almost subhuman.

“Hey, Neo,” she said when those mismatched eyes began to creep her out. She curled her lips in response. Of course she said nothing – she just stared up at her expectantly, though what she expected Emerald had no idea.

She reached out through the bars; Emerald took a step away. Once she saw her bite a man’s ear off, watched her chew and swallow it as easily as any zombie, but that was after Salem had taken her away.

No point saying anything more. She’d already had as much of a response from Neo as she was ever going to get. For some reason she just felt the need to look at her, but now that she had she felt uncomfortable, guilty. Salem and Cinder took them all in, provided them with food and shelter and protection, but some of the things they did… she would be lying if she said she’d never questioned them.

A hand grabbed her when she left the room and she almost reached for her gun. When she looked up she saw Roman, expression sombre, maybe a little desperate, and when she opened her mouth to speak she found herself as mute as Neo.

He filled the silence. “It’s only a matter of time before it’s one of us in there. One of _you._ ” Like she and Mercury were interchangeable. Maybe they were.

“Cinder would never,” she replied, and Roman scoffed out a laugh almost cruel.

“You keep telling yourself that, darling. Enjoy your _health check_.”

He closed the door behind him and left Emerald stood in the dark winding corridor by herself.

 


	2. Next

“Do you think we’re next?”

The weeks that followed their ambush success were quiet and peaceful, giving them much more time to do the ‘nothing at all’ that so defined his zombie apocalypse experience. In their shared room Emerald lay on her side in bed, blanket pulled up to her chin, staring at him expectantly as he tilted his head behind his comic and raised an ear to her, waiting for more before bothering to respond.

“Like Neo.”

He wrinkled his nose. Whatever Salem and Cinder and their merry band of men were doing to Neo he wanted no part in - it seemed so calculated, so measured. They took _notes,_ figures, the whole nine yards, which, in his experience, was all that distinguished experiments from torture anyway.

“Nah,” he answered. “It’d be Roman before us.”

“And after Roman?”

Mercury shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s not like we can just wait and sneak out when it’s our turn.”

He just shrugged his indifference a second time and returned his attention to the page, but though she made no effort to continue the conversation he could feel her thoughts circling their room, irritatingly tangible, and he realised he’d read the same dialogue bubble three times without taking in a word. With a dramatic roll of his eyes he dropped the comic to his lap and directed his exasperation at Emerald directly.

“The hell are you asking for, anyway?”

“It’s just something Roman said.” She sat up in bed, brushing too-long bangs behind her ears. “Why Neo? Why not us?”

A guilty look passed over her face that surprised Mercury. To be honest, he’d known the WTCH employees were up to some shady shit the second he woke up from his amputation, but until then Emerald had always tried to pretend everything there was normal, or necessary. He never thought he’d see the day she’d question their intentions – not while her beloved Cinder still gave orders.

“Guess she was easier. She’s small?”

“Why’d they take us in and not any of the others, then?”

Anyone else he might have guessed felt sorry for him - Cinder and Emerald had found Mercury at sort of an awkward time, saw half way through the bone of his left leg – but the more he thought about it, the more he realised how much easier it would have been for them to just leave him to bleed out, or to turn, or whatever else might have happened to him had they not taken him back to WTCH and made him his prosthetic. He was good at robbing people - didn’t have any qualms with murdering them either - but the same was true for Tyrian, and Hazel, and neither of them had ever been a drain on resources. Had it really been charity?

“And the health checks. Doesn’t that seem weird to you?”

Alright. So maybe he was a little curious, too.

It was easy enough to formulate a plan; the former employees of WTCH documented their findings on paper, so there were no pesky passwords to bypass. The difficult part was figuring out which of them should be their target, and how to corner them away from the cameras. Watts would probably be easiest since Mercury unfortunately had a real reason to speak to him, but he was also a suspicious bastard who would most definitely notice even Emerald sneaking around behind him unless he could hold his attention. Luckily Mercury could be very distracting.

Emerald’s voice carried easily down the deserted corridor, feet pattering against the tiles as she quick-walked to keep up with Watts’s rapid pace. “Doctor Watts? Mercury’s leg is acting up again. It’s really bad - he’s in a lot of pain.”

“Oh, the poor thing,” came his sarcastic response. “I am in the middle of something very important.”

“If you don’t see to it now it might get worse. What if Salem needs to send us out on short notice?”

“That is not my problem.”

“But you fitted it for him,” Emerald insisted. “He asked me to find you, specifically. Please, Doctor?”

It actually sounded as if she was worried about him, and if the world hadn’t ended she probably could have been an actress, or at least an incredible hustler. Their footsteps came closer, but Watts’s didn’t break away as he’d half expected – in fact, they powered on through when Emerald opened the door, like he couldn’t pause for breath. Mercury hardly had time to contort his face and make his part convincing.

“ _What_ is the matter with you, then? Make it quick.”

He bit back the hundred sly remarks on his tongue. “Cold’s fucking it up,” he mumbled instead, sprawled out on his back in his bed, prosthetic half detached like he’d tried to fix it himself. He wasn’t exactly lying – the cold did make it ache more than usual, metal frozen against tender skin – but it was a pain he could tolerate. After all, he did cut the thing off himself.

Watts sighed, and it was _just_ a sigh, but somehow every inch of his patronising nature edged into it, and Mercury ground his teeth. When he roughly grabbed his leg and turned it over he hissed in actual pain, no need for a performance; he moved it side to side, giving it little more than a cursory glance. “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it,” and Watts released him, leaving little white fingerprints behind from the force of his grip. “You’ll just have to learn to deal with it. Do try to keep your whining to a minimum, yes?”

With that he turned and left just as fast as he came, storming down the corridor like he was the most important thing left on Earth, no time at all for Mercury to be the annoyance he knew he could be; something had already distracted him for them. The moment he left Mercury fixed his prosthetic back into place, ignoring the throb of his stump, looking up at Emerald hovering at the edge of his bed as the final locks clicked into place.

“Got it?”

She patted her coat pocket. “Of course.”

It was all weirdly simple.

When the ache subsided he followed her down and out the building innocent as possible past the security cameras. None moved to follow. They came to an empty house behind the watchtower - if Watts noticed the missing book it would give them chance to hide it before he found them, but then, with whatever had him so interested Mercury had a suspicion they'd remain undisturbed for some time. On only one other occasion could he remember them so excited. Maybe Neo’d started doing something fun.

Emerald opened the notebook carefully as a religious tome, hesitating with every flick of the page.

“ _Neo Politan, four foot eleven, six and a half stone, A positive, no prior exposure_ ,” she recited.

Mercury leant back against the crumbling wall, against peeling wallpaper as he listened.

“There are some dosages written down, dates - the last one was a week before we left. I don’t know what any of the letters stand for… it doesn’t make any sense.” Then: "Right. Here we are.” He’d never _felt_ somebody else’s stomach drop before. “ _Emerald Sustrai, prolonged indirect exposure_.” She paused and wrinkled her nose. “What?”

“What’s it say by my name?”

“ _Mercury Black, direct exposure_.”

“Nothing else?”

“Not on this page… Roman’s name's here too, and Cinder’s. That might mean…” she trailed off as she turned the page, keeping her justifications to herself. He didn’t like being on the same page as Roman.

“ _Day 298. Left room at 04:32. Visited cells._ ” Emerald looked at Mercury again, eyes wide. “Are we being watched?”

“Fuck _that._ ” Mercury folded his arms across his chest, watching as Emerald’s fingers clenched around the hardback cover, as her eyes dropped to the torn, stained carpet beneath their feet. She forced herself to continue, to read their own actions out loud, from their nightmares to their waking conversations, everything WTCH had no right knowing. A breeze blew in through broken tiles above their heads, and he resisted a shudder. The surveillance cameras suddenly made a lot more sense – guarding the experiments, sure, but why waste power in every wing? Maybe that was why they were never sent far from the labs, why Tyrian and Hazel were always sent on the longer jobs instead. ‘Direct exposure’ was obvious - how many people were bitten and survived, after all? – and he had a funny feeling that almost three hundred days was plenty of time to just observe. Annoyingly, Emerald wasn’t wrong. They couldn’t wait to see phase two.

“We’ve got to go,” he said, finally, and that was how they ended up in the watchtower with Roman Torchwick, of all people, to plan their escape.

 

* * *

 

The days grew in length as January came to an end, only prolonging the waves of anxiety rolling off Emerald in the lead up to freedom. It hardly fazed Mercury, of course; he had no real attachment to the place, and as terrible as he’d seen the WTCH employees be, he didn’t fear them, either.

“Worst case scenario? They catch us and feed us to one of their pets,” he said, just to hear Emerald groan.

“ _You’re_ the worst,” came her equally immature, mumbled response. Her skin was ashen; she almost looked ill.

When darkness fell and Roman took his usual place up in the watchtower, Emerald and Mercury left their room one last time and casually made their way down to the cells. It was part of the deal: no Neo, no escape. Roman had been pretty clear on it, and they needed him if they were ever going to get through the gates. Taking Tyrian’s keys was a piece of cake, far easier than stealing Watts’s notebook – the main issue was taking Neo from the cells without anybody noticing. In fact, that somebody would notice was pretty much a given - that was why they had to move so quickly.

Caged zombies groped for them through bars, hungry, agitated, and even with their mission in mind Mercury couldn’t resist teasing them, walking just close enough for their desperate fingers to scrape his jacket as they made their way to the last cell in the row, to the tiny figure beneath the blanket.

“Hey, short stuff.”

Neo didn’t seem too impressed to see them, but she did perk up considerably when Emerald produced the keys from her pocket.

“Bite us and I’ll boot you across the room,” he warned as the keys jingled guiltily within the lock - Emerald was nervous enough for it to take her two attempts. Neo raised her middle finger at him as she awaited freedom - at least there was something of her old self left in there. _How close had they come to the same fate?_

“Roman’s ready at the gate,” Emerald explained breathlessly, dragging open the heavy door. “We’re taking the truck and getting as far away as we can.”

Neo gave a short nod of acknowledgement, not a hint of questioning in her steady expression. They walked quickly enough for her to need to jog to keep up, but they didn’t run – not until they had to - and it was so surreal to be making their way out for the last time so soon after their return when just a few days ago he would have sworn he’d be there forever, but he couldn’t say he wouldn’t be glad for the change of scenery.

They sped towards the exit.

“Kinda quiet,” Mercury commented, and Emerald groaned a second time.

“Don’t jinx it.”

He should have, but he hadn’t. Somehow the journey from the cells to the gate was a breeze, easy as always, like they hadn’t just stolen WTCH’s favourite test subject from under heavy surveillance. When booted footsteps echoed behind the door to the labs they quickened, but there was no need – they passed on by again without pause, like whoever they belonged to had some place to be, and urgently. He didn’t tempt fate by bringing up how strange the lack of resistance was a second time, and he ignored the unfamiliar uncertainty that tensed his fingers around the grip of his gun. Not like he was paranoid, or anything.

“Take your time,” Roman said without his usual bite, because he'd seen Neo beside them and threw an arm round her shoulders, pulling her into his chest, squeezing her tight for one silent moment before opening the door for her to climb in first. He looked out over Mercury’s shoulder at the labs behind him. “No trouble?”

“None.”

Roman’s brow furrowed. The car started. Mercury reclined in the backseat, rolling his head to see Emerald sat beside him pulling at the sleeves of her coat, ringing the fabric through her fingers, more anxious than he’d ever seen her before. “Maybe we should go back for Cinder.”

Roman actually laughed, a jubilant sound that heralded the end of his miserable time behind the walls of WTCH and filled the car as it slowly rolled forwards to freedom. “You have _got_ to be kidding-..”

A fist thumped against the window, silencing him at once, and Mercury's heart leapt into his throat; did they even look away long enough for someone to approach? Apparently so - Tyrian gave a malicious grin as he leant down, resting his forearm above the door.

“Have fun,” he sang. “We’ve got a new toy to play with.”

And Roman floored it, hurtling them through the gates so fast that he and Emerald had to hold the walls to stay in their seats, fast enough that the side view mirror cracked from the impact with Tyrian’s hip, whose cackle followed them long after it should have faded.

“Creepy fucker,” Mercury said, but his comment did little to diffuse the tension, and nobody spoke again as they drove onwards through the darkness, headlights dimmed, until the sky turned red with sunrise.

 

* * *

 

A bump in the road snapped open her eyes and she was only surprised the sunlight hadn’t first, pouring in through the glass, temporarily blinding her. Though she hadn’t intended it, the quiet rumble of the engine had soothed her to sleep, and she had no idea whether minutes or hours had passed since she’d drifted off, but since Mercury and Neo had too she leaned towards the latter.

Sitting up straight she rubbed at the ache in her neck; the throb that beat in her temples, unchanged by her nap, only seemed to worsen the pain.

Cinder’s details were in Watts’s notebook too. Did Cinder know that? Was she there voluntarily? She had recognised her handwriting sketched across the paper, neat, cursive, but still it nagged at her to have left her behind. It wasn’t that they were friends, because ‘friends’ was a tentative, heavy word she had used rarely in her life, but she certainly felt some loyalty to the woman who saved her from that awful house one year ago even as it became increasingly clear they had been herded together for some unbearable purpose - one Cinder had to have known the moment she extended her hand.

Roman’s eyes caught hers in the rear-view mirror lined heavily with dark bags, exhaustion from the stress of escape, of Neo’s condition, the hours of driving. She supposed she should thank him for agreeing to help even if it _was_ only to save his girlfriend, but she was never good at that sort of thing, and he didn’t seem to need it.

“Where are we going?” she asked instead.

“Beats me, kid,” he replied.

Miles of countryside passed them by, yellow and brown in the mid-winter, as miserable out there as it felt inside. No food, no change of clothes, no medicine, not even a place to rest without contorting themselves - the prospect of life outside became less and less attractive the further they travelled from the labs, but there would be no going back.

In the distance stood a sign, tall and dirty-white, three words plastered across its front:

_Vale - eighty miles._

Well. It was something.

 

* * *

                               

The abandoned vehicles littering the highway were parted down the middle, or would have been if not for the broken down car, open trunked, blood coated, that blocked the narrow passage that lead from the settlement to the nearest town.

Qrow knelt on the ground. The corpses that lay before him had said goodbye only a few weeks prior. It never got any easier.

He took the radio from his belt.

“Found them.”


	3. One Wrong Step

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won't usually bother with giving warnings for blood and gore given the genre, but this chapter is probably the worst for it. Heads up!

The mall heaved with movement like lungs, which was ironic considering nothing inside breathed. Ambling over the rubble, shouldering one another side to side, groaning gutturally low in their throats, the zombies sniffed out the long forgotten scent of life and made their way towards the wide glass window overlooking the parking lot.

“Jeez,” Ruby said. “That’s a lot.”

“More than there should be,” Weiss agreed, giving Blake a sidelong glance.

Blake sighed. “Someone must have disturbed them. If we’re quiet, we should be fine.”

“ _If_ we’re quiet?” Yang asked, grinning from ear to ear. “Come on, Blake. We’re professionals.”

Three months had passed since they’d last been on a run together, and Yang couldn’t hold back the excitement coursing through her at finally being outside the walls. Not that she wasn’t appreciative of the safety of their settlement – she knew all too well what it was like to live on the outside – but sometimes she just needed a little entertainment, and with the limited supplies they had, killing zombies was kind of… it.

Ruby snickered at Yang’s comment and took a step back from the window before she agitated the dead any further, and Yang watched as her sister’s eyes scanned the area, as she pursed her lips and formulated her plan. Ruby was a genius – her ideas had saved their lives more time than Yang could possibly count – and with her brains and Yang’s _skills_ there was no doubt they would return home victorious as always. Why did their dad worry, again?

“So, are there any other ways in?”

“There’s an employee entrance around the back,” Blake said.

Ruby nodded. “If we make some noise here we can draw their attention away and sneak in.”

“Sounds good to me.” And Yang had just the thing. She dropped her bat and swung her rucksack into her hands to rummage around inside - when she produced the glass bottle Weiss groaned, throwing back her head.

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’m totally serious,” she replied, taking the lighter from her pocket and flicking it to life. “You can thank Nora for this.”

“ _When_ will we put that menace behind bars where she belongs,” Weiss lamented.

“Isn’t that just going to draw more attention?” Blake asked, though she couldn’t help but smirk just a little bit. So Yang liked when they had an excuse to use Molotov cocktails – what could she say?

“I mean, yeah,” Ruby admitted, “but if they’re all in one place it could make our escape easier too. You know. We’ll just… not go this way.”

When Blake eventually shrugged her reluctant acceptance of the plan Yang lit the fuse, pulled back her arm, and tossed the bottle into the window of a parked car. The effect was immediate; the noise, deafening. Flames rose out from the wreckage, and it took no time at all for the sounds of distant groaning to close in, attracted to the light and heat it emitted.

Blake lead them to the entrance. She’d been the one to suggest the mall in the first place – the last member of their little team to arrive at the settlement had spent more time than any other out in the wilderness with her old partner, and during that time she’d made herself a pretty handy mental map of the land surrounding what would come to be her home. The door was firmly locked, but it wasn’t a problem for a group of their experience; Blake dropped to her knees and jostled it open with the lock picking supplies they’d brought along for just such an emergency, ever prepared for every circumstance. The satisfying click of success was barely audible over the sounds of flames and moans from the other side of the parking lot.

Of course, that click wasn’t the only thing the noise outside had muted. When they pulled the door open they were greeted by no less than ten starving zombies, miserably dead in their work uniforms - _what a way to go._ Blake jumped back just in time to avoid their groping hands.

“Guess we’re fighting after all,” Ruby said with an unconvincing sigh, freeing her knife from its holder.

“What a shame,” Yang grinned, and crashed her bat into the first zombie’s head.

In a shower of blood the four girls made their way through the backroom, chopping and slashing and beating and stabbing until the monsters crumbled, immobile as they should have been in the first place. Honestly, Yang was more of a shotgun kind of girl, but ammunition was running low, so she had to make do with the resources they had (smashing heads was kind of cathartic anyway). Two closed in on her while she swung; one she kicked in the chest, throwing it back across the room into Weiss, who took it down easily with the neat precision she’d come to be known for. The second she dealt with more personally, punching it hard in the face.

When Blake looked at her display she rolled her eyes and tossed her knife over Yang’s shoulder into the zombie she hadn’t heard approach, blade squelching as it entered the side of its head. Yang whipped round and let out a nervous chuckle as it fell to the floor.

“Oops. Thanks?”

“You’re such a show off, Blake,” Ruby snickered.

“It isn’t showing off if it has to be done.” Blake took back her knife and returned it to its sheath, looking out over the chaos that had once been a staff room. “… Besides, Yang shows off all the time.”

The room stilled, coated in blood and brains and other disgusting things they had to watch their step with on the slick laminate flooring. It seemed the perfect place to start; the stores themselves were always looted first, but people often forgot about homes, offices, staff rooms. Most of them had first aid kits, leftover bottles and containers, a few sets of clothes to change into - it wasn’t much, but they took everything they could get, and every day it was less than before. Once that room had been plundered they continued cautiously onwards into the main section of the mall, and the sound outside seemed to have done the trick; only a few stragglers blocked their path, more of an annoyance than a threat, ones they dealt with promptly.

“Where do we even start?” It had been a long time since they’d been presented with so many options – it was almost overwhelming to have so many places to look inside.

“We have to be back in the car before it gets dark,” Weiss reminded them, “so we need to prioritise…” and tediously she began to list the things they needed most, the things they all already knew. As she did, Yang noticed Ruby’s slow side-step to an abandoned shopping cart, empty and rusted and oh-so-lonely - like a cat with a box, she climbed up inside.

Without even turning to look, Weiss closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. “Ruby…” she began, but it was clear there would be no stopping her, and what sort of sister would Yang be if she didn’t lend her a hand? Fingers enclosing around the handle, Yang grinned and gave the cart a little push.

“We should race!” Ruby suggested. “Weiss, let’s find you another-..”

“There is no way on this Earth.”

“Aww, come on. Blake can push you, Yang can push me. First to the elevators wins!”

“They’re _filthy._ ”

“Well, duh. Everything’s filthy here!”

“It’s _dangerous_.”

“Any of us could die any minute,” Yang added.

“Don’t say that!”

Ruby sank back in the cart, knees bent, feet dangling from the end over rusty metal. When the first infected appeared she had been just thirteen, plenty small enough to fit inside comfortably. At eighteen it was a stretch, but she was still her tiny, baby sister, and pushing her along the uneven flooring was a breeze.

“Look at this.” Blake spent her time more constructively, cleaning off an old floor map with the back of her sleeve as the sisters came to a skidding stop beside her. A pharmacy and a hardware store on the second floor. If they had been guarded by the horde, it wasn’t out of the question that they were untouched - Yang was an optimist.

Unfortunately, the pharmacy was more of a _make-up_ and _hair dye_ deal than prescription drugs, but there were Band-Aids and bandages and painkillers that would be useful - not that you could just put a bandage on a zombie bite, of course, but the amount of times they hurt themselves within the wall definitely justified filling their bags with them.

Reluctantly Ruby exited the cart and took the right side with Weiss; Yang and Blake took the left. The decision was absolutely _not_ made so Yang could mess around with the make-up counters.

“I think this is your colour,” she said, raising a dark purple lipstick into Blake’s field of vision. Blake gave it a blank stare before returning to her search.

“Yes, Yang. Lipstick is definitely what we need to take back to Ozpin.”

“Oh, no. This is _way_ too dark for Ozpin. I think a nice pink would suit him better. How about this one?”

Blake let out a reluctant chuckle at her selection, though most her attention remained on the aisle opposite where she eyed a bottle of hairspray, suitably flammable enough to be worth taking for the journey back. She shoved it into her bag.

“Did you ever wear make-up before this?” Blake asked, making her way further down the aisle, and Yang shrugged her shoulders.

“I was fifteen. I used to steal my mom’s. You?”

“Not really. I had an… eyeliner phase.”

“Oh my god. I knew you were a goth kid.”

“It wasn’t _goth_! It was- alternative.”

Yang barked out a laugh that startled someone across the store into dropping whatever they’d picked up, and Weiss’s familiar chiding carried over, making Yang grin and Blake snicker once more.

The world had pretty much ended five years ago. At first it had been terrifying; Yang and Ruby shared whatever bed they found themselves in travelling the country with their father and uncle, fighting nightmares of corpses turning people to corpses, of teeth penetrating flesh, of blood and guts and the god awful smells that haunted their waking hours, too. Five years was enough to get used to it. And it was a lot easier to cope with friends and family like hers.

“I’m going to check the store room,” Blake said, and Yang gave her a wave of acknowledgement before turning her attention to the shampoo.

It was as simple as that; two and a half minutes of distraction from the brightly coloured bottles that lined the shelves and a couple of feet between them.

There was a gasp.

“Blake?” Yang called, heaving herself back up. She followed the sound. “Found something good?”

When no response came she pushed open the store room door, and it took her too long to understand what was happening. Blake lay on the floor, arms outstretched, holding back a zombie whose face inched closer to hers every second Yang wasted. It took her too long to understand because it was just one, because Blake hadn’t screamed for help - because Blake could handle anything, why hadn’t she handled this? That’s all Yang thought as she sprinted across the room and grabbed the zombie’s shoulders to pull him away from her: a young man, dark hair, long black cloak thick but shredded from months or years of undeath, face peeling-

“Stab him!” she found herself yelling as Blake continued to stare up at them in horror, frozen. Yang cursed beneath her breath, struggling to hold the zombie back and reach for her own knife at the same time - he was much bigger than her, movements rabid, hard to keep control of.

“Guys!” Yang yelled again.

Teeth pierced skin, tearing flesh from her forearm easy as a knife through wet clay. The pain was terrible, but she didn’t have time to make a sound - she had to keep it off of her, to stop it from biting anything else, to stop it from turning to Blake again, but the blood that dripped from her worked better than a bucket of ice water shocking Blake back to her feet and into action - she stabbed the monster in the head again, and again, and again until it crumpled to the floor and then she followed it, continuing until it was unrecognisable as anything once human, until it lay beheaded and still on the ground.

She heard the skid of sneakers as Ruby and Weiss entered too late. They’d just been joking about make-up. Yang held her hand over her wound and whimpered aloud, then, the agony of her situation washing over her.

“Yang, no…”

Her mind raced. She didn’t know who spoke. Blake grabbed her arms, and when Yang looked at her she saw that her face was slick with tears and blood, felt her hands shuddering uncontrollably with their tight grip on her.

“… cut it off…”

“… there’s not enough time to get back!”

“… hardware store.”

“Blake. Stay with...”

She was on the floor. Distantly she was aware that she was probably having a panic attack, but that single rational thought was quickly washed away beneath ones that told her she was going to die, that she was going to lose her arm, that she was never going to see her dad and uncle again, that she was going to leave Ruby behind. The wound throbbed with her heart beat and Blake held her, quiet sobs slipping from her lips though she tried so hard to contain them, intermittent apologies streaming from her like prayers. How long did it take for the virus to spread? They’d talked about it before, seen it happen so many times, but Yang couldn’t remember the minutes, didn’t know how many had passed by anyway. An hour, maybe? Two? Blake hauled her up but her legs were like led; she half carried her to table, shoved whatever had been there before onto the floor with a noisy clatter. Then Yang was lying down, staring at the ceiling, sweating from the pain and stress filling every inch of her. Could she feel it? The virus spreading through her veins, burning inside her? It must have been her imagination.

Footsteps came - too many - and Blake held a breath as she stared at the store room door, silent for so long that Yang had to know; through unfocused eyes she stared into the gap of light pouring in behind Weiss and Ruby, and at the guns pressed to their heads.

“Now _this_ is interesting.”

 

* * *

 

 

The corpses that littered the floor of the staffroom were bludgeoned and stabbed, no sign of bullets, though carnage in droves – four, maybe five people were looting inside, at a guess.

“We should just avoid them,” Emerald spoke. She stepped over a body, cautious not to slip on any brain matter along her way.

“Could do,” Mercury replied. “But the explosion was a while ago. They’ll already have the good stuff.”

“Let’s just see where the evening takes us,” Roman said from where he was knelt on the ground, almost as tall there as Neo stood by his side. “It’s not like they have any _real_ weapons.”

The plumes of smoke that followed the eruption of sound summoned them across the deserted city landscape, bringing them to the pot of gold that was the small-town shopping mall, already ‘cleared’ by whoever had beat them to it with their clever little plan. It wasn’t that she minded the inevitable confrontation that would occur should the two groups bump into one other, it was just that Emerald spent the last year shooting other survivors dead on her leader’s command. She looked forwards to the day she’d be able to pretend they didn’t exist instead.

But it looked as if that day was still a way away. Together they made their way through the mall past ‘fresh’ corpses, past the signs of recent life, through the clothes stores (some salvageable), an old food court (nothing salvageable), electronics (entirely useless), until Neo tapped loudly on the cloudy plastic covering the floor map.

Until two gasping sprinters turned the corner.

Both groups froze.

The girls were young, probably younger than her and Mercury, and tiny – they had to have come with more to get so far. A quick glance told her they were armed, not with guns but small knives, excluding, of course, the saw the girl in white and blue held in her arms. In her own hand Emerald held her gun, pointed at them in pure instinct. She hardly remembered moving.

“No,” the girl in red spoke, voice little more than a whimper. Then Emerald noticed her tear-stained face, clean trails in the dirt and dust down to her chin. “Get out the way! We don’t want to fight.”

“What makes you think you have a choice?” Mercury began to ask, but the girl sprinted forwards, charging them like a bull. Roman grabbed her coat collar hard enough to pull her off her feet.

“What’s the rush, Red?”

“Let her go!” the other said, hands balled into fists at her side. They were settlement kids, clothes free of rips and tears, hair recently washed, equal amounts indignant and clueless. From the wreckage outside she’d expected something else – raiders, perhaps – people who knew what they were doing. She kept her gun trained on the girl with white hair, but her eyes fell to the one held firm by Roman, at her light grey eyes behind a film of tears.

“Holy shit,” Mercury said, attention turned to the saw. “Someone’s bit.”

The girl tugged herself free of Roman’s grasp but Neo stood her path, tilting her head up at her as she shoved the barrel into her chest. An air of desperation surrounded them and she realised Mercury was right - she couldn’t help but glance at his face, to gauge his reaction, but his expression had fallen to something carefully guarded.

Roman made his way to the other girl who stood firmly, neck bent back in her attempt to maintain eye contact. Gun pushed to her temple, he smiled and said, “Well, then. Lead the way.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Now _this_ is interesting,” Roman said when they entered to the sight of a pretty blonde clutching her bloody forearm, to the girl at her side that reached for her weapons without hesitation. Despite the crimson soaking the sleeve of her khaki jacket she sat up too, movements so rapid, face contorted with such _fury_  that for a moment Emerald wondered if she’d already turned.

When Red and the one with white hair broke away it was like they didn’t even exist; that they had guns and they didn’t never occurred to them in their urgency to reach their wounded friend. Backs towards her group, Emerald could have executed them and saved them the trouble of chopping through the blonde’s arm, but she didn’t. Instead she looked at Roman, then Mercury, then Neo, all stood in awkward silence. They weren’t used to being ignored.

“It’s okay, Yang,” said Red. The words were shaky, uncertain. “This… this’ll hurt.”

“Yeah, got that,” Yang replied through gritted teeth. Tough, but weakening; though Emerald had no point of comparison she could see how pale the pain and panic had made her. It reminded her a lot of the first time she’d seen Mercury.

“It’s gonna be fine, Ruby.” Her uninjured wrist rose to touch Ruby’s face, a smudge of blood transferring there. “It’ll be fine,” again, like she was convincing herself.

“Weiss - tourniquet.” Weiss shovelled through her rucksack, took a roll of bandages in her hands. They knew what to do. Emerald watched in morbid fascination at the young girls moving together like a machine - how many times they’d seen it happen before? Weiss wrapped the bandage above her elbow.

“Gonna need to tighten that,” said a voice from beside her. Emerald perked an eyebrow at Mercury, but he ignored it; Weiss snapped her gaze to him like she really _had_ forgotten they were there.

“Right,” she exhaled, searched the ground. When nothing jumped out at her the girl who’d stayed with Yang tipped out her rucksack, plastic and metal clattering on the laminate floor. Something long and thin, a piece of metal, something belonging to a lock pick, stood out against the muck; Weiss tied it into the bandage then twisted until Yang let out the first shout of pain. Weiss shook, then, wiped her brow. “Blake, I don’t think I can-..” She didn’t need to finish.

Blake cut through the arm Weiss held down flat against the table surface, whose head turned in a grimace away from the sight (though nothing could distance any of them from the _sound_ ), as Ruby held Yang by her shoulders and murmured things she couldn’t possibly hear under her own terrible shrieks. Emerald and Cinder found Mercury in a similar position a year before, leg torn and bloody, surrounded by corpses, saw embedded above his knee. Zombies she could handle no matter what they looked like, no matter how many limbs were hanging off, no matter how much gore… but something about the sight of a person so determined to survive, about somebody _dismembering_ themselves made her stomach turn. When Cinder forced her to steady his leg as she finished the job she’d thrown up - it was the _noise._

This time she didn’t throw up. Blood seeped and seeped as the saw tore through skin and veins and muscle and bone, though not enough to obscure the procedure - good thing they’d tightened the tourniquet. Yang’s shrieks of agony subsided; she fell unconscious, unsurprisingly, but the work was far from over.

Emerald took a step closer to Mercury.

“We need food, and somewhere to sleep.”

“Uh-huh,” he agreed.

“Looks like they have somewhere to go back to.”

Roman dipped his head. “Might have already ruined that little plan. I’m not so sure they’ll welcome us with open arms. Excuse the pun.”

“So we play nice.”

“If you wanna make friends,” Mercury gestured towards the girls engrossed in their grim task. “Go right ahead.”

The hair-raising noise of metal scraping metal reached her ears, followed by the dull thud of severed limb falling to the floor. It was finished.

“Yang? _Yang?_ ”

Emerald slinked towards them and shrugged off her coat, holding it out until one of them noticed, and Ruby took it from her hands, hesitantly, eyes full of suspicion and doubt. “It’ll soak the blood better,” she explained, adopting that pitch she always used with strangers she wanted something from. _Look sympathetic. Sound concerned._ “Do you have somewhere close?”

“Yeah,” she choked out. “Yeah, about forty minutes.”

She pressed the coat against Yang’s new stump and held it there, hands shaking, and Blake and Weiss heaved her off the table, dragging her feet across the floor as they moved her forwards. Emerald couldn’t get near to help any further- the second she did Blake hissed like a lion, sharp eyes cutting her down.

But they didn’t stop them from following, didn’t even acknowledge them again until they reached their car, until they loaded Yang inside.

“Listen, we’re kind of looking for somewhere to-”

“You held a _gun_ to my head,” Weiss cut Roman off, staring him dead in the eye. “Piss off.”

“Your little friend wouldn’t be here if Mercury here hadn’t reminded you how to tie a tourniquet, _princess_.”

“I knew what I was doing-!”

“We don’t have time to lose them!” Ruby closed the door behind Weiss and turned to Emerald – the look on her face took her aback, surprisingly stern, mature, sad. Perhaps she was older than Emerald had first thought. “If you follow us back we’ll try and help you, when we can. It’s what we _do._ ” Blake climbed into the driver’s seat as if the conversation wasn’t happening, dead gaze on the road before they’d even started the engine. “But if you hurt _any_ of my friends…” Ruby sat with Yang in the back seat, pulling her unconscious body down to her shoulder. Through the open window she met Emerald’s eyes.

“We’ll kill you.”

 

* * *

 

 

They followed the car for ten minutes less than Ruby had said, a speedy journey half an hour long through the fielded wilderness towards the mountains, towards civilisation.

_We’ll kill you,_ she’d said. Of course Emerald wasn’t afraid of them – they were just settlement kids who didn’t even have proper weapons – but the fierce loyalty they had displayed was… disgusting? Interesting? Tempting?

“You really wanna stay with them?” Mercury asked.

“No,” she replied honestly. “But it’s not like we have a plan.”

“Learn what we can, take what we can – gotta say, kid, it’s better than nothing.”

Emerald kicked the back of Roman’s seat. “Stop calling me kid.”

A high wooden wall - or fence, perhaps, would be more apt - partially shielded the settlement from sight. It looked as if its residents had put it up themselves, and it would hardly keep zombies out, let alone raiders, but still, better that than wandering aimlessly until they ran out of gas - a few weeks inside would be fine, just until they found out more about the area, until they figured out what they could take from them.

A group awaited their arrival and one of the girls must have radioed in to warn them, because as soon as the car in front opened its doors Yang was carried out into a building with Blake, Weiss, and Ruby trailing close behind her. Not everybody followed; a tall, tan girl with long red hair pulled back in a ponytail instead approached their car, leaning down to offer a tight smile through the window.

“Hello,” she said, voice warm and kind despite weary. “I’m Pyrrha. Weiss told us you were coming.”

“Did she tell you anything else?” Roman asked.

Her laugh was light, and just a little awkward. “That you tried to rob them. Don’t worry - you aren’t the first. But we will have to, ah, guide you inside…”

Well, they weren’t completely stupid.

It was so different to WTCH Labs - an actual town, more like a village in size, with houses and clean paths and dead winter gardens. And it was _busy_ \- the people who didn’t follow Yang hovered around the street murmuring to one another, glancing at them by the gate. For the first time in a long time Emerald could see what the world used to be, and against her better judgement she felt that deep inside, longing resonating through her for a time before the apocalypse, just for a moment. _How had they managed so well while the rest of them had suffered?_

A lanky boy joined Pyrrha and gave them a wave that Emerald returned. _Be friendly,_ she reminded herself. _It’ll make things easier._ A glance around her own group told her she’d have to be friendly enough for all of them. The boy rubbed the back of his neck, and though neither of the new pair followed Yang, their shock and concern at what had transpired was evident in their every movement.

“Hey,” he said, eventually. “Welcome to Mountain Glenn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3


	4. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all _need_ to look at these [awesome outfits](https://fanaticalparadox.tumblr.com/post/158757051423/okokok-so-i-wasnt-doing-anything-at-school-today) fanaticalparadox drew for this fic! I'm still so giddy about it.

“Everyone’s so _cheery_ here,” Roman spoke from his seat at the table, where he inspected his nails in dim flickering fire light. It was a surprisingly homely dining room bursting with broken trinkets, dusty curtains hanging heavy either side of the the window overlooking Mountain Glenn - once upon a time it probably belonged to some old lady. Now it acted as their holding cell.

Back against the windowpane Emerald said, “The blonde did lose her arm.”

“It’s just an arm. She'll live,” Mercury replied. “Not like she has to learn to walk again or anything.”

They were guarded still by Pyrrha and Jaune, stood watch outside the door until whoever was in charge could decide what to do with them. From what Mercury had gathered pressing his ear to the wall they were waiting for somebody to arrive before they could get started, and until they got started they were locked up together with as little to do as back home - still spied upon, but at least not through a camera. He didn’t mind if people were only watching because they were scared he was going to shoot them in the back.

Not that he could. Of course they’d taken their weapons, and of course he’d glared at Emerald the entire time for getting them into the situation in the first place – it would have been far simpler to just take what the girls had back at the mall then continue on their way. Emerald’s quick thinking hadn’t been entirely stupid, of course; benefiting from others’ hard work had become something of a routine for them. He supposed even he could put up with a bunch of strangers if it meant they could sneak a few boxes of supplies from under their noses instead of having to starve searching for themselves.

Behind him he heard Roman’s voice low as he spoke to Neo sat on the table, little legs dangling over its edge, fidgeting irritatingly. A mute girlfriend was perfect for him; nobody else would be able to get a word in edgeways anyway. From the other side of the room Emerald curled her hair around her finger, turned, now, to watch the rain splash against the window in silence.

Mercury stood.

“Gonna take a look around.” He pulled open the window and flashed Emerald a wink, then dropped out into the rain.

The settlement was small, kind of like the place he’d grown up in, and only a little more decrepit. He estimated maybe thirty people lived in Mountain Glenn from what he'd seen moving in, and guessed the place was kind of new since the residents were still fixing buildings, though they must have been there a month or two to have set up the wall. It probably meant they’d moved from somewhere else, and _that_ probably meant they were hardened enough to make it difficult for them to fight their way out (if it ever came to it), but in the daylight he’d be able to find the weak spots that would help a hasty exit when they’d taken what they needed. Looking around properly was difficult in the dark, but honestly he’d just wanted to move a little - sitting still drove him crazy, even if the alternative was wandering about alone in the rain. From outside he couldn’t determine which houses were used for what, if all of them were residential or if any had been repurposed. He could count them properly, though - fourteen buildings dotted around the settlement, but one in particular drew him to a stop.

Watching an amputation hadn’t fucked him up as much as he’d expected, though it certainly made him feel more than he was comfortable feeling. He didn’t know the girl, and it wasn’t like he was sympathetic - he wasn’t going to knock on her window and offer her advice or anything - but he did understand, and that was something. It would be interesting to see how she dealt with it in the weeks it took for them to scout the place out. If she got out of bed at all.

He turned his back on the house she’d been taken to and repressed a grimace. His own stump ached from the cold, though he’d get no sympathy from Emerald; the fault was his own for agitating it instead of just sitting still. Before it got any worse he made his way back to their temporary prison, hoisted himself up to the low roof beneath the window, and banged on the glass until Emerald relented and opened up for him to pull back into the warmth.

Okay. It was better than sleeping in the car.

 

* * *

 

As children they’d hardly spent a day apart. From the day Ruby was born Yang was her shadow, by her side always. Of course they argued - one little thing and they’d tear each other to pieces in shouting matches that vibrated through the house, that made their mom and dad stick them in separate rooms opposite sides of the house until they calmed down, until they came to their senses sniffling and hugging and apologising like dumb babies every single time. Big sisters were supposed to protect their little ones, but Yang went above and beyond that duty: Ruby’s entire life came with the assurance that Yang was watching her back, keeping her safe. Even before the apocalypse they were best friends. Killing zombies together just cemented that.

_“She’s going to be okay.”_

Rain pattered against the window, a whisper of wind accompanying it, winter sun obscured by thick grey clouds. All their spare blankets and pillows piled on Yang’s bed, whatever pitiful comfort they could give her an offering to her sleeping form. She’d woken up a few times, but mostly she slept, and even when her eyes opened there was a distance to her, like she couldn’t quite rationalise what she’d been through.

She was _okay._ The worst was over. She was alive. Ruby couldn’t really ask for more.

The room was dark - a storm a few weeks prior knocked out the limited electricity they’d managed to establish back in fall and it probably wouldn’t be fixed until spring, but they’d spent five years without it, so it wasn’t the end of the world. Besides, all Ruby did since they came back was watch Yang, change her bandages, pace around the room and look out into the streets below. Focusing had always been a difficult task for her, but since their return Ruby hadn’t even tried - what was the point? All she could think about was holding her sister’s shoulders down while she screamed the most agonising scream she'd ever heard. Maybe it was who it belonged to that made it so terrible.

“Did you change them already?”

In the doorway her dad stood, and though he addressed her his eyes stayed on Yang and her new stump. He knew the answer - he was just making conversation. Ruby appreciated it.

“Yeah,” she replied. “She didn’t wake up though.” _Or at least, she pretended not to._

“Oobleck said that’s normal. It must have been exhausting…”

He came over to where she stood by the window and wrapped an arm round her shoulder. At eighteen she’d expected to reach at least his chin, but unfortunately her growth seemed stunted at twelve. It only made the hug more comforting, however; she leant into it and sighed. “She’s going to be okay,” he reiterated. “You and the girls did a good job.”

Over the days following the amputation none of the tell-tale signs of infection made themselves apparent. Luck was an understatement - it had to be divine intervention that saved Yang’s life.

“It was Weiss and Blake mainly,” Ruby admitted. “They were so cool… I just kind of cried and held her down.”

“Hey - don’t pretend that isn’t brave. If I’d had to do it…” and he shuddered, leaving his sentence incomplete. “You did good. _You saved her_. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks.”

They may have saved her, but things would be forever different now. Yang was right handed, for one - something she’d have to relearn entirely. She used to be a kickboxer, too, meaning she couldn’t practice most of her moves ever again. She wouldn’t be able to pick everything up with one hand, not even her bat, not even her shotgun. Hugs would be different. Ruby knew Yang well enough to know how hard it would hit her, and it hurt, but she never voiced those awful thoughts to her dad - it was already killing him to not have been around to help. Her uncle, too, when he returned a few minutes later, back early from scouting to see her, coming in like a whirlwind, storming up the stairs and halting at the foot of the bed to stare in disbelief. A moment of tense silence passed before he pushed his hair back off his face with a long, shaky sigh.

“She’s tough,” Qrow said. She and her dad nodded. “She’s gonna be okay.”

“There’s no infection. She’s had the last of the antibiotics.”

“We’ll need to send another team out to get more,” Qrow spoke beneath his breath, a little note to himself. “That said - we need to talk, Tai. Tonight.”

“You can’t talk here?” Ruby asked. Qrow shook his head.

“Ozpin wants us. You’ll get the details soon enough.”

Then he joined them, letting Ruby wrap her arms around his chest. It had been a while since she’d seen him - his scouting often meant he was gone for months at a time, but without it they’d never know where was safe to loot next. At least the radios usually worked - that must have been how he heard to get back so soon. Her dad’s expression tightened, and Ruby was suddenly hit with the distinct feeling of missing something, and like they’d noticed, Qrow and her dad took their conversation outside, leaving her alone with Yang breathing slow but steady, skin pale, bags under her eyes despite all the sleep she’d managed.

Ruby took a seat on the edge of the bed. She hadn’t slept at all.

 

* * *

 

“That’s five since we got here. Wasn’t Mountain Glenn supposed to be safe?”

“Mountain Glenn isn’t the problem - it’s the raiders outside we need to worry about.”

“We still have no idea if the attacks are related.”

“No,” Qrow said. “And there’s no way of knowing. It’s not like they have a pattern - could be ten, could be a hundred of them.”

Taiyang frowned. “What we need is more protection.”

“Hah. You wanna ask Jimmy to part with his precious ammo or should I?”

“He will if it means keeping Mountain Glenn safe,” Glynda argued.

“If he wanted us safe he wouldn’t have taken it all in the first place.”

“You know he has good reason, Qrow,” Ozpin intervened. As always the room quietened when he spoke, a voice of reason amongst the rising panic. A strong word for it - concern, anger, distress would probably fit the situation better, but it wouldn’t be long until it did develop into panic - they’d seen it happen before. Maybe he was right. More than anyone, Ironwood had reason to hoard defences. Mountain Glenn was just a settlement, somewhere civilians could live and grow food and all that mundane crap in relative safety, shielded by little other than the mountain it was named for. At least on one side. Atlas was something else entirely, so yeah, he _got_ it, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it.

“However,” Ozpin continued. “Given the circumstances, I am sure he can be persuaded to part with a few bullets.”

What was worse: having no ammunition, or having to talk to Ironwood?

“Which brings us to our second matter.” Ozpin looked to Taiyang, who knew what was coming just as Qrow himself did. “With Miss Xiao Long’s accident we are in dire need of medicine. It would seem wise for us to send out another group as soon as possible.”

_And before we get our hands on any more weapons_ seemed to go without saying. Once they’d only had to worry about zombies, slow, predictable, easy to kill. For five years they’d perfected their techniques and then all of a sudden the raiders came and they had to relearn, had to lose lives to simple mistakes all over again.

“I’m not leaving until Yang gets better,” Taiyang said. “And the girls need a break.”

“Pyrrha and her friends haven’t been for a while,” Glynda suggested.

“Didn’t you put them on guard duty?” Qrow asked. “What are we doing with the new kids, anyway? Anyone actually talked to them yet?”

“Making up for the numbers we’ve lost isn’t a bad idea,” said Glynda.

“They held a gun to my daughter’s head,” Taiyang replied.

Ozpin knotted his fingers together, resting his chin on his knuckles as he looked out over the gathered. “Haven’t we all found ourselves assuming the worst of strangers? I believe Miss Rose stated the group helped them, too.”

Qrow rolled his eyes. Just like Ozpin to be willing to trust so easily even as he returned with news of their fifth lost friend to human hands.

“I will speak with them in the morning and let them know they are free to roam, for now. Though… Qrow, I would appreciate it if you could keep an eye on them. At least for a few weeks. Until they settle.”

Babysitting duty. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, huffing his indignation.

“Fine. Whatever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there's so much set up going on here! I hope you don't get too bored waiting for the Fun Stuff to happen.


	5. Aid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Adox spoiling me again with [more hilarious art](https://fanaticalparadox.tumblr.com/post/158828371798/another-doodle-pertaining-to-anawitchss-zombie) from chapter 3!!

It was a depressing walk round the settlement scouting out houses, searching rooms that looked as if they’d already been plundered, so empty she felt guilty, or at least she might have had were she that way inclined. Actually, her most pressing emotion was irritation – why build a gigantic wall to protect things you didn’t even have? Her idea seemed so clever at the time, but as the weeks went by she began to realise that the only thing they’d be taking from Mountain Glenn was information, and that meant speaking with the people who lived there.

“ _We can steal their shit,_ she said,” quoted Mercury, hands in his pockets as he walked along besides her. “ _We’ll be gone in a week,_ she said.”

“And those were the last words _Mercury_ said before she finally snapped and choked him.”

Mercury laughed. “Damn, Em. You trying to get me hot?”

“Don’t be gross,” and she barged her shoulder into his, shaking his balance, earning a snort.

Minus the half-hearted flirting, Roman and Neo had reacted pretty much the same. Nobody was happy to be watched like criminals inside Mountain Glenn’s walls, but she maintained that it was still marginally better than running out of gas in the middle of nowhere and starving to death.  The people were annoying, untrustworthy, and they’d dealt with enough rules and regulations to last them a life time, but until they found leads on somewhere new Mountain Glenn was all they had.

 “Oh!”

They rounded the corner of the house just as Ruby did, and she looked up at them with her big grey eyes in surprise. The venom she’d shown at their last meeting had dissipated; she’d returned to the little girl Emerald first judged her to be, only now with eyes lined by the heavy bags of somebody who’d neglected sleep for little over a week. Even so, Ruby offered a friendly smile that seemed genuine enough, that reeked of an unreasonable level of forgiveness given what they’d nearly done to her and Emerald returned it, reluctantly, hers much more strained.

Without a word Mercury continued onwards, leaving her to deal with the kid herself.

“Is he okay?” Ruby asked, watching him go.

“Oh, yeah. He’s just…” she searched for the word. “… Shy?”

The laugh Ruby gave betrayed her, brief and awkward and scratchy in her throat, prompting Emerald to ask the question she knew she was supposed to: “How are things? How’s your friend?”

“Sister,” she corrected. “She’s tough. She’s going to be okay.” Then she scrunched up her face and shook her head, sighing gently. “I mean… that’s what everyone’s saying. I hope she will.”

Mercury’s recovery hadn’t taken long - at least, not physically. He was lucky enough to see a real doctor with real supplies, to have a clean, safe room to rest with frequent check-ups, but he was on his feet and limping around long before Emerald felt like she’d seen the real him. For months he was quiet, irritable, antisocial (more than usual). The smug asshole she knew now was a far cry from who he’d been when they’d met, and somehow infinitely better. Even if she did feel the need to comfort Ruby, she could never tell her that. It wasn’t her story to share.

“I’m sure she will,” she said instead, a safe and practised remark that meant nothing at all, but which soothed Ruby’s moment of panic enough for her to change the subject.

“So, how’re you finding Mountain Glenn?”

“It’s nice,” Emerald answered. “It must be safe if you’ve all survived here so long.”

“Well, we’ve only been here since summer. We used to live on Patch – me and Yang and our family. It’s an island so… it seemed secure.”

“Seemed?”

Ruby nodded. “It’s easy for somewhere like that to get overcrowded. Then someone gets infected, and there’s nowhere to hide. Before you know it…” she held her arms out at full length and stuck out her tongue, groaning low in the back of her throat, then snickered at the look of confusion that must have passed over Emerald’s face. “We moved around a lot, then we found some new people, and eventually we ended up here. But I think it’s pretty safe! I mean, look at our wall.”

She had done, and she wasn’t impressed. She didn’t let it show.

“What about you?” Ruby asked. “Where did you and your friends come from?”

“Mistral,” came her quick response. “It’s the same story. You’ve probably heard it a hundred times.”

“Overrun?”

“Mhm,” she agreed. That was the trick to a good lie – the less she said, the less she had to get caught up on later. With a careful mask of nostalgia, falling silent, she successfully deflected any further questions like a pro and they walked together quietly, a moment for Emerald to think. What she needed was to get Ruby to talk about the area, but to bring it up herself might tip her off to her group’s true intentions. The last thing a settlement so sparse on supplies needed was competition from outsiders, because Mercury’s estimate was probably right: about thirty of them, all together, not an easy number of people to maintain. Even the eight at WTCH Labs had sometimes been a struggle.

_Must be something about them, though._ Everybody seemed so comfortable there, so… at home. Even before the virus spread Emerald never had that - never would. It just wasn’t something she was fated for.

As they came between two houses and the main gate came into view she realised a crowd had drawn, though over what she couldn’t quite see. A low murmur of excitement carried over to them and Ruby stopped, fists held up to her chest as she beamed and held her breath. Were they… trucks? Big white vans, cleaner than anything she’d seen since the outbreak began. Ruby screeched, a high pitched noise that somehow transformed into the words: “It’s Atlas!”, then sprinted forwards, leaving Emerald in the dust.

But curiosity drew her to follow casually after her, making her way through the people talking and laughing with new men and women dressed neat and clinical, like being back at the labs. She couldn’t help it; she searched for Cinder amongst the faces, her long dark hair and piercing eyes but no, of course it wasn’t her, and guilt pierced painfully in her stomach. No. She wouldn’t see Cinder again.

She pushed it to the back of her mind and located Ruby amongst the chaos when she squealed yet again, clung tightly to the chest of a little ginger girl, just slightly taller than her, freckled and green eyed and the only of all the strangers to be dressed casually, a little green dress and heavy jacket to keep her warm in the mid-winter chill. Demonstrating surprising strength she lifted Ruby and spun her around, face equally split in a grin – old friends, obviously. With no interest in watching their obnoxious reunion Emerald turned on her heel and fled back to the house they’d been granted, open affection almost offensive to her.

But... _Atlas_. At least she would return with a new lead.

 

* * *

 

 

The man himself stood crisp white against the dark of Ozpin’s home, arm and prosthetic crossed behind his back, perfectly military as always. A scoff escaped Qrow before he could prevent it, but no-one questioned his disdain – they all knew what he thought of his old friend and the pointless work he did, the resources they sank into it.

“ _Surely_ you can spare more than that.”

“My apologies, Glynda. The bandits near Atlas are only increasing their-“

“ _As they are here_. Amber is dead, James - so are Tukson and Caer. We need to be able to defend ourselves! Blades and uncontrolled explosions are adequate enough to deal with _them_ , but the living are still a threat.”

“If I leave my scientists exposed, we’ll live like this forever.”

“They found anything good lately?” Qrow interjected lazily, head tilting from where he sat on the kitchen counter. Ironwood’s steely gaze fell on him, and his silence was answer enough. Another scoff; Qrow slid his long legs down to the ground and prowled towards him, distaste thick in the air around them. “Yang had her arm amputated. On scene, no nice, sterile lab like you.” Arms folding across his chest he looked up to meet his eyes, red narrowing. “Ruby had to watch, _Jimmy,_ so if you’d stop pretending your little experiments are worth more than the lives of my _nieces…_ ”

At least he had the decency to look away, shame evident on his aging face. Yes, he’d been the one to take all their firearms, and maybe they’d agreed to it at the time, months ago, but things were changing. Their fellow survivors’ desperation for supplies already in competition became more and more deadly with every passing day, and James knew it. Soon there’d be nothing left to save.

“Three,” James said. “We can give you three.”

“Three between thirty-two. Sounds fair.”

“That brings Atlas below-“

“Thank you, General.” Ozpin’s interruption indicated it was time for him to back off, yet still Qrow stood glaring. An unfair rage, he knew – James wasn’t behind what happened to Amber, what happened on the last run, the run before that, but with diminishing supplies anger was the only outlet he had left. _God,_ it had been too long since he’d had a drink. Maybe he could lever some whiskey out of him, too, but again, Ozpin’s voice brought him back from those thoughts. “I take it the research on Miss Polendina has yet to return meaningful results?”

Another beat passed before James confessed, “Not yet.” He ran his fingers through greying hair with a sigh. “We’re optimistic.”

“That’s one word for it.”

“ _Qrow._ ” A familiar sound; one of everyone in the room chastising him at once. He huffed and crossed his arms.

“Isn’t it dangerous to bring the girl with you?” asked Glynda.

Ironwood pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling. “She insisted she join us. I don’t want her thinking she’s nothing more than a test subject - it’s as dangerous there as it is here.”

It was dangerous everywhere. They’d learned that much back at Patch when they’d lost Summer, little island overrun with survivors desperate for safety - even ones already bit, putting every life at risk by taking the narrow journey across the sea from Vale. Bitter memories of his family’s suffering in the days after their escape, the painful adaptation from warm beds to burned-down buildings and streets, two teenage girls motherless and scared and no way to help them. Hope for a cure died long ago; Ironwood could try all he liked, but Qrow knew this was just _it_ now. Anything more was only wishful thinking.

Ironwood left without speaking to him again; soon after Glynda followed, damage control as always. That left him and Ozpin and a temporary silence, sounds of rain hard against the window soon filling it. Then Ozpin sighed, bringing his hand up to his tired face. “How are the new residents?”

“Suspicious,” Qrow replied. “But they’re kids – ‘cept the redhead. They ran from somewhere.” He was sure of it.

“Good.”

“Something’s up with the short one.”

“I’m aware.”

He bit back a disparaging remark - _if he knew so much, why was he making Qrow tail them?_   His displeasure surely showed on his face if Ozpin bothered to look up, but he didn’t. Instead he watched the droplets on the glass outside and hummed thoughtfully to himself, as if alone.

Qrow got the hint.

 

* * *

 

 

Though she’d said goodnight to Penny some time ago a smile remained warm on Ruby’s lips. Two months had passed since her last visit - Ruby kept track of the days - but before that it had been only weeks. The time between reunions grew forever longer, and she knew _why,_ but it didn’t make being apart from one of her best friends any easier. Not that it mattered now, nor would it for at least another week. Right then not even the rain could dampen her spirits.

Weiss and Blake, on the other hand, seemed less than happy in the miserable weather, soaked to the bone as they stood outside her front door, urgent whispers passing between them only just audible beneath the splash. Though she couldn’t distinguish the words it was clearly a heated debate intense enough to hide Ruby’s steady approach.

“- _if you’d just talk to her-_ “

“She doesn’t want to see me!”

She sighed and closed her eyes. Maybe _one_ thing could ruin her good mood.

It was one thing she’d left out speaking with Emerald: since the incident neither friend had visited Yang. Not because they didn’t care – God, it was so obvious how much they cared – but because, well… Blake was Blake, and Blake had a way of taking on all the world’s problems and making them her own, then hiding away from her perceived mistakes no matter what anyone said to convince her things would be okay. Weiss caught her outside storage to ask about Yang’s condition, asked for the both of them, because Blake couldn't build up the courage to face them. Like they'd ever blame her.

If there was ever a time for her to break the habit it was now.

It wasn’t until Ruby was almost at the front step that the two noticed her, snapping from their discussion to make their sheepish apologies.   

“Aren’t you guys cold?” she asked over them, pushing at the unlocked door. “You know dad said you can come in any time.”

“Yes. We were just about to,” Weiss replied with a pointed look towards Blake, who sighed her resignation and nodded, outnumbered, now, with Ruby there too.  

Taking to the stairs Ruby let out another sigh, this time of relief to hear footsteps following behind. Above that came the sound of her dad’s voice low from Yang’s bedroom, gentler than normal as he spoke to his wounded daughter – he’d been treading on eggshells ever since she’d woken up, but then so had Ruby, and it was still early days. Better to be safe than sorry on such new grounds.

Yang noticed her first through the crack in the door looking past their dad at the foot of her bed, but said nothing to interrupt him.

Ruby did instead. “I’m back!” she announced. “Weiss and Blake are here too.”

The team reunited at her bedside, a little awkward and crowded in the small room. Her dad greeted them with a sincere smile and made space, perhaps just as glad to see them reunited – a few days under two weeks was a long time to be apart when the time had dragged so terribly.

“Call me if you need anything,” he said, pushing up from the bed and resting his hand on Yang’s hair. She wrinkled her nose from habit, first smile she’d seen from her tugging at the corner of her lips chasing away a hell of a lot of Ruby’s fears in one small twitch.

“Yang,” Weiss said, hand resting on her shoulder. Blake remained silent, though she too moved closer. “You look… better than I expected.”

What might have been a dry laugh escaped from Yang, short and hoarse in her tired throat but still all too welcome. “Gee, thanks,” she croaked. “Blake’s a lucky lady.”

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”  

Maybe things really would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wouldn't things have been so much easier if Yang actually had her friends around? Yeaaaaah.


	6. Phantom Pains

She managed ten seconds of standing before she had to lie down again.

It was all in her head. Obviously she could _move_ , but she’d spent so long in bed it felt wrong to. Head spinning she curled back beneath the covers and tried not to sob, if only because she knew her dad and sister were in the next room listening for progress. Getting up meant dealing with it, and she wasn’t ready. Without her arm she was weightless, off balance, irritably incomplete, but somehow the sympathy suffocated her most of all, well-meaning though it was. Stepping outside, seeing the concerned looks of the rest of Mountain Glenn - no. Staying in bed was the only option.

Predictably, a few days later and she was bored out her mind. She hated being inside one set of walls enough, let alone two of them. Waiting till the front door snapped shut she tested again, climbing out of bed, making her way to the window. Outside the streets were empty enough, the February chill and intermittent storms keeping most indoors. The initial wave of dizziness passed quickly. From his basket Zwei gave a curious tilt of his head. _As good a time as ever._

But the cold hit her hard. At the best of times she hated it - after spending weeks in bed it seemed almost spiteful. Narrowing her eyes at the icy wind she pushed onwards, determined to make at least one round of the settlement, the first steps towards recovery.

Those steps didn’t do as much to distract her from her thoughts as she’d hoped. Standing outside only made her disability more evident; one arm swung freely with each movement, the other a stump hung lifelessly to her waist, and once that crossed her mind it wouldn’t leave again - if she tripped she’d be unable to catch herself, stupid thoughts, running through her head again and again until her right side had weight to it - not only that but _feeling,_ an ache spreading down empty space like an impossible itch.

Ten minutes in and she needed to sit down.

Back against brickwork Yang hissed, clutching her bandages - not pain, exactly, but an uncomfortable tingling reminding her of what she’d lost. Staring at it didn’t help, nor did touching it. _There’s nothing there. There’s nothing there._

“Fuck,” she cursed aloud. It didn’t matter if there was nothing there - she could _feel_ it. Her head hit the wall behind her as she sucked in a breath, gritting her teeth when the pain came as it had repeatedly over the last few weeks, knowing it would pass quickly enough.

Then a window opened, and blinking up she saw two hands hanging from the frame, crossed at the elbows, and a face staring down at her, eyebrow cocked, lazy smirk on his lips.

“Wondered when I’d see you, Blondie,” the man she knew was Mercury said. “How’s the arm?”

“Fuck you.” First (and last) time she’d seen him hadn’t been her finest moment. Besides, no matter what Ozpin and the others insisted, they’d held her friends at gunpoint. Why they’d allowed him and the others in she’d never understand.

“That any way to talk to someone just being friendly?” He swung gracefully enough out the window and climbed down - pointless when the door was only metres away, but he seemed to be aiming for some kind of reaction from her. Irritation? Maybe if her stump wasn’t throbbing. It took up too much of her attention to give him the verbal abuse he deserved for what he’d done. She only turned her head from him and sighed loudly, hoping it was message enough.

“The cold fucks with it.” There was nothing mocking in his tone as he sat down next to her, stretching out his legs in the dirt. Ruby said her Mercury was the quietest of the lot next to Neo, so his chattiness came as a surprise; still, she had her suspicions about their group, and looked back at him with caution.

“Yeah?” she asked. “If you know so much, how do I make it stop?”

“You don’t.”

“Great.”

Closing her eyes she kneaded the tender flesh beneath the bandages and breathed through her nose, steadying herself. It always passed eventually. A few more minutes and she’d be fine.

“So does the heat. Damp. Dry. It’s just a ticking time bomb.”

He spoke so casually. Whatever look she gave him must have been particularly withering, doubtful, because he snorted and bent forwards to pull up the leg of his pants. Beneath them a prosthetic lay the colour of steel, cold and metallic where his left leg should be. The sight stilled her. When she met his eyes his expression was smug, pleased to have rendered her speechless, to have made his point. _Okay. Maybe he did know what he was talking about._

“Oh,” came her response, practicing careful disinterest. “How’d that happen?”

“Same as you.”

Ironwood had prosthetics, too, from the times he’d been bitten doing whatever they did back at Atlas. Yang wouldn’t be so lucky - so late into the spread of the virus there were few left who could fit her with one, even less who had the time. She’d already had that conversation. Wherever Mercury came from must have been well supplied, but she didn’t ask. Already his knowledge over her stung, and she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of prying into his personal life any further.

He didn’t say anything more, either, and she realised that his reveal had distracted her enough to take her mind off the pain. The ache that lingered was manageable.

“My name’s Yang. Not _blondie._ ”

“Mercury.”

Neither extended a hand. Neither looked at the other.

“Ruby’s my sister. If you or your friends ever touch her again, I’ll tear you apart. One handed.”

Now he looked at her, humour contorting his features rather than the surprise she’d hoped for. Intimidation was not a tactic she could use on Mercury; it amused him, gave him a look in his eyes as he looked her up and down Yang was more than familiar with – just one she hadn’t expected to see so soon after losing a piece of herself.

Better that than the delicate treatment the others gave her.

“Guess I’ll go get warm, then,” she said before she could dwell over it. “Thanks for the info.”

“You do that,” he replied.

The house was still empty when she returned, and she couldn’t decide whether to let her family in on what she’d done or learned. Recovery came in stages, but if Yang had any say in it they’d only see the final few - not the awkward, messy parts in between where she struggled to circle even their tiny settlement. The last thing they needed was more stress. Maybe tomorrow she could hop out of bed and walk around like it was nothing. Maybe that would cheer them up.

For now it would stay with Zwei and Mercury alone.

 

* * *

 

 

Guarding their supplies seemed a pointless act when they all ran so low, but Ruby did her duty anyway, well aware she’d been shelved from a more meaningful post to spare her dad’s nerves. Most days she would have complained, but it had been a testing month, and for once she didn’t blame him. Yang still in bed, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren gone hunting... there was a lot to worry about. She wasn't going to add to it sitting on watch, first point of contact between inside and out.

Besides, she couldn’t whine about the warmth of the indoors, nor about having Penny by her side again. Her presence there was like sorely missed sunshine.

Through the stock room she walked – or skipped, more like – inspecting the few supplies they’d gathered. Paracetamol, sleeping tablets, anything easy to get their hands on they had in decent amounts, and she was sure to comment on it with a beaming smile, optimism infectious.

“I guess,” Ruby replied.

“Ruby, headaches are very serious. Paracetamol could stop somebody from being in too much pain to defend Mountain Glenn! You should be very proud of everything you and your friends have accomplished here.”

It was impossible to be sad around someone so positive; her words bought an honest smile to Ruby’s face, and she nodded her agreement. Had their last two scavenging groups not perished they might have been fully stocked, and though their loss was painful, by some miracle they’d had just enough to see Yang through her recovery. That was something to celebrate.

“We should throw a party when Yang’s better.” An idle suggestion without much thought behind it, but it brightened Penny’s freckled cheeks further.

“Oh! That would be wonderful! I’m sure she’ll love it!”

“If we can find some more batteries we can even have music.”

“General Ironwood has- oh.” Red eyebrows knitted together, gaze falling to her boots. “General Ironwood says we have to leave again soon.”

Penny’s ability to lighten any mood didn’t even scrape the surface of her importance, though _why_ she was so in demand was a well-guarded secret Ruby had only stumbled upon one day, by chance catching a glimpse of the dull raised scar between her neck and shoulder, well defined teeth marks stood plainly against the pale white of her skin. Panicked cries exchanged between the two until Ruby understood; Penny was immune to the virus. She was the only person they’d ever found not to turn after being bit. Her life was more valuable than anyone else’s, and that was kind of awesome.

At least until it meant Penny returning to Atlas.

Her voice lowered, and she took as step closer. “Ruby… I don’t want to go back.”

“Then don’t,” she responded, simple as she knew it wasn’t. A smile flickered and died on Penny’s lips and she took Ruby’s hands in hers, squeezing tightly.

“If he tries to make me, I’ll hide.”

“There’s room under my bed!”

There was no way Penny would be allowed to stay somewhere so unsecured. Both of them knew it deep down, but it was fun to entertain the idea. It seemed they were doomed to see each other every few months at best – a real shame when she liked her so much.

Hands still connected Ruby’s cheeks flushed, gaze averting from pretty green eyes to the wooden floorboards beneath their feet.

A creak dragged their attention to the hall; in came Neo, tiny and frightening, somehow, with her mismatched eyes and dead stare, followed by the lanky ginger she’d discovered was Roman. Of all of them Emerald was the only one she’d had a real conversation with, the only one she honestly felt comfortable enough around – Roman, Neo, and Mercury were somewhat more menacing, even if they _had_ done nothing questionable since their arrival.

“Well, hey there, Red. Freckles,” Roman greeted. With a sudden rush of embarrassment Ruby dropped Penny’s hands and laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Hi Roman, hi Neo. Uh, this is my friend Penny. She’s from Atlas.”

“Salutations!”

Saying nothing in return Neo walked by, straight to the still open cupboards where the medication was kept. Though she couldn’t reach it standing she eased herself onto the counter and retrieved a packet of something, eyes glancing over the label, interest quickly fading.

“You need something?” Ruby tried, only marginally surprised by the strange behaviour.

“Neo has a headache. I spoke with your… _charming_ uncle. He directed us here.”

“I’m supposed to get everything myself. I have to mark when something’s taken, so we can keep track of what we need.”

“Then I suggest you make your mark. Neo’s already taken it.”

In her hand she held five or six pills, and swallowed them at once without delay.

“You’re- you’re only supposed to take two,” Ruby said, hopelessly. If it were a zombie she could handle it easily, but the still-strangers were new territory. Maybe they just didn’t understand the rules? Neo _did_ look unwell, gaunt and fragile, movements clumsy and slow like exhaustion weighed her down.

She didn’t acknowledge her. She walked straight back to Roman.

“Are you feeling okay?” Penny asked, tilting her head on its side. No response.

“Neo’s mute. She doesn’t talk.” Eyes still scanning his surroundings Roman spoke with disinterest, hand falling to touch Neo’s hair.

“Oh! Why?”

There was a pause before Roman’s shrug that raised suspicions in Ruby, though she didn’t know what she had to doubt. Residual distrust, perhaps, that spiked in her stomach nervously – _something_ was wrong. She just didn't know what.

Back before they left Patch, just when everything started going wrong, Ruby met a man. She never asked his name. They’d already abandoned their first home by that point, and new faces came and went every day. He seemed normal enough, a little quiet, a little tense, but nothing too unusual. Still, Ruby felt he had a secret – something in the way he carried himself. That night they slept in the same barn, her family and his. He’d been bit and hid it, turned before morning and took his wife and sister with him, their screams tearing Ruby from her sleep just in time to get Yang and her dad and her uncle out of there.

The feeling she had when they met was the same she had now.

“Uh… if Neo’s not feeling well, we have a doctor. Lots of people from Atlas are. I think they’d be happy to take-..”

“It’s a headache. She’ll be fine. _Thank you_ for your _hospitality._ ”

When they left Ruby moved the medicine to a different room. Penny helped without questioning the necessity of it. She was good like that.

“She acts like she’s infected,” Ruby said, “but she’s been like this since she got here.” It took hours, not weeks to turn.

Penny hummed. “I don’t _think_ she could be immune. When it happened to me I didn’t feel sick at all.”

Maybe something else, then. Probably just a cold. Either way it wouldn’t make much difference; they already had a potential cure in Penny, and a possible immunity was of no threat to them. Besides, then Penny wrapped her arms around her middle and squeezed tight enough to make her squeak, and pushed all thoughts of Roman and Neo from her mind.

 

* * *

 

 

Things they knew about Atlas:

  1. It was some way away. A few days at least by car, a week at most.
  2. It was well supplied. Its residents came armed to the teeth.
  3. It was some sort of science or hospital facility, not unlike the labs they’d fled from in the first place.



Leaving WTCH was beginning to look like a mistake. Maybe Roman and Neo didn’t see it that way, but Emerald missed the safety of it. Who cared if they were being watched? Who said Neo didn’t agree to the tests first before she lost her voice? She’d been so rash, so unlike herself, to leave without speaking to Cinder first. She’d fallen into old habits, no trust in anyone, and now she was stuck struggling between two options.

It boiled down to this: would they rather stay somewhere unsecure, unsupplied with the ‘decent’ people of Mountain Glenn, or risk the poking and prodding of new strangers in Atlas?

 “Long way to go for nothing,” Mercury said.

“It isn’t _nothing_ if someone there can help,” Roman replied, tense.

Neo was getting worse. Before she’d acknowledge when they spoke, could understand what was being said, and now she was dazed, unfocused, responding to Roman and Roman alone. If she’d been unnerving in Atlas she was downright frightening now, something straight out a cheap horror film in the way she watched dead-eyed, like she’d turned without the aggression. At least WTCH had been keeping whatever _this_ was at bay.

Guilt, perhaps, forced Emerald to agree with Roman. That was never a good sign.

“I’ll speak with the other _grown ups_ and find out who’s in charge. Can’t tell them where we’re from, but they’re all too _good_ to turn us away even if we tell them nothing. If they won’t help her… we follow after them. Find a way in, steal their shit. At least get something out of it. Better than the nothing they have here.”

Emerald nodded. Mercury shrugged. Neo said nothing, just stared blankly at fresh rainfall outside the window.

 

* * *

 

 

In the dark of night sat high on the walls of Mountain Glenn, something like torchlight drew Qrow’s attention east. He squinted into the distance, eyes failing him under the overcast stars. It extinguished just as quick, disappearing from sight.

It was late. He was probably seeing things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi this is the end of the info dump! Next up, Chapter 7: Goodbye.
> 
> '30 chapters' is an estimate. It's somewhere over 25 and the little question mark bothers me haha.


	7. Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [THANK YOU](https://fanaticalparadox.tumblr.com/post/159209556108/ok-so-i-know-i-suck-at-drawing-zombies-but-this) Adox you continue to be fantastic!!

Staying, going, it never mattered much to Mercury. He wasn’t bleeding with sympathy for Neo, didn’t care how much her state bothered Roman, but after all the things they’d been through he didn’t like the idea of been split from Emerald. Where she went, he’d follow.

They got word that the Atlas crew would be gone before the next morning.

Another walk around the settlement, then, to ‘stretch his legs’ before the long journey. He hadn’t bothered to get to know anyone there, and to be honest, he’d never be able to pick their faces out from a crowd once he left either. Except Blondie, of course, and maybe her friends for the next year or two, but after that? Nothing.

Yang was outside again, to his surprise, throwing sticks for a little dog who tripped over itself in its urgency to fetch. Mercury had a dog once. He couldn’t remember what happened to it, but his dad wasn’t a big lover of anything noisy when his hangovers hit, so he had his suspicions. Idly he watched from where it would come to a stop, just out of sight, arms folded, maybe smiling a little. It had been a long time since he’d seen one, after all. The infection killed animals indiscriminately.

The stick landed by his feet and the little dog sprinted to him and yapped, running laps around his legs till he bent down to throw it back to Yang, and the startled surprise that lit her face to have it return almost made him laugh.

“What are you doing here?” she asked when she located the stick’s source, dog bouncing along beside her.

“Just passing by,” he replied.

“You're not moving.”

“Well, now you’re talking to me. That’d just be rude.”

A quiver of a smirk twitched at the corner of her lips.

He liked how little time it took for her to be back outside, and the spark of flames that brushed his skin when she warned him off her sister. Of all the people behind Mountain Glenn’s walls, she was the only one who held his interest.

That she was tall, blonde, and unreasonably attractive for someone who’d just undergone an unexpected amputation definitely helped that.

“What, are we friends now ‘cause we lost an arm and a leg?” There was humour in her question, eyebrow cocked as she regarded him back.

“Sure,” he said.

“I gotta tell Ironwood we’re starting a club.”

The dog bounced, paws finding Mercury’s legs as he whined for attention. Mercury ruffled the fur on its head, his hand licked clean in return.

“His name’s Zwei,” Yang said. “We had him before the outbreak. He stayed with us through everything – crazy, right?”

“Uh-huh,” he agreed, taking a seat on the ground to give Zwei the petting he demanded and Yang sat next to him on the roadside, jacket sleeve swinging loosely over the empty space of her right arm.

“When we were kids we used to say he got turned into a dog by a witch. He’s like a little person.”

Zwei rolled onto his back, exposing his belly, contradicting Yang’s words wonderfully. Mercury continued. Maybe he’d kidnap him and take him to Atlas. For a while they sat in silence, leaving him to contemplate the ways in which he’d do it. A dog would never follow him when it had an owner, though, and in the end he abandoned the idea all together.

“Does it ever stop happening?”

Yang was on a different wavelength.

Understanding immediately, Mercury said, “You get used to it.”

Then it fell quiet again, Yang huffing a breath that disturbed the hair falling from her ponytail across her forehead. Her questions didn’t bother him, but they took some thought for her to voice, words lingering in the back of her mouth as she opened and closed it, teeth grazing her lips.

“I keep thinking I can feel it. Not my arm, the… when it bit me I thought I could feel the infection. It was like I could feel my own blood moving in my wrist, and it spread. Did that happen to you too?”

Huh. That wasn’t something he’d thought of before. Too little time passed between the bite and the severance, but putting his mind back, he remembered the burn of it. “… Yeah,” he said, and Yang sighed with relief.

Somewhere in the distance came a shout unremarkable in itself, but when others followed he took note. It was panicked, spreading fast, yet he couldn’t quite make out the word.

 

* * *

 

“Herd!”

The warning should have been given sooner, so much sooner – zombies clawed at the gates and more ambled behind, close to fifty – sixty? Seventy? More than they could handle. How had the lookout not seen?

He remembered the light like a fist clutching his gut. As the residents of Mountain Glenn scrambled to comply with evacuation plans, he climbed the ladder to the usual post and found exactly what he’d feared: the watcher, dead, throat slit messily by human hands.

 

* * *

 

“I need to find Ruby,” Yang said, on her feet in an instant.

“Where are our weapons?”

“Check storage.” She was already leaving, shouting out over her shoulder, Zwei following at her feet. “In the basement. We planned to meet in the next town over – head west. Follow everyone else.” She paused, taking a shaky breath.

In that moment they broke through, wall crashing down deafeningly loud, and the screams began in earnest when one man disappeared beneath an avalanche of corpses. Then Weiss and Blake ran to Yang, Weiss clutching her shoulders, lips moving rapidly beneath the din.

The first thing on his mind was _Emerald,_ and it took little time to find her stumbling out their house, Roman and Neo hot on her heels. In the bright light she squinted and blinked heavily, then said, simply, “Shit.”

The zombies spread like a plague and more fell, blood soaking dead winter grass a muddy crimson. Gunshots rang out from the Atlas crowd, sound bouncing off the mountain and echoing through the streets, but there would be no clearing through such a crowd - slow as they moved it seemed unreal how quickly the settlement was overwhelmed. By the time Mercury found their weapons, it was impossible to spot living amongst the dead. Mountain Glenn was already lost.

“Stick to the walls,” Roman yelled over the panic. “Don’t let them sneak up on-“

Just like that his voice cut off in a shout of surprise, two hands groping from the building’s corner and taking him down to the ground. There wasn’t time to fire a shot – teeth sank into Roman’s throat and it was too late to do anything else, a choked gargle his final words before the zombie tore too deep and ended his pain.

It was a sound Neo imitated as she fell to her knees at his side, his shirt clutched in her hands too close to chomping jaw for comfort and yet the zombie never acknowledged her proximity, just continued to stain the pristine fabric, dark spreading over white.

“Neo, come on,” Emerald said, voice strained. More followed the sound of their commotion and they were spotted, dead eyes focused on them as they crept closer. “We’ve got to go.”

She snapped her own teeth at Emerald and that was that: Mercury dragged Emerald back by her shoulder, and they sprinted away from their former- friends? Acquaintances? Colleagues? - because there was nothing left to save.

 

* * *

 

A grunt of exertion and Ruby tugged her knife free from a zombie skull and checked over her shoulder, where Penny wiped hers on the hem of her dress. The main gates were overrun, but Ruby knew another route.

“Stay close, Penny,” she said. She couldn’t see anyone she knew through the throng of bodies and her voice shook, because she’d seen this before, and again before that.

“Don’t worry. They must have made it out already. It will all be okay.”

Ruby didn’t reply. The zombies came from all directions, now, even inside the houses, and painfully familiar though it was the sheer number of them overwhelmed her, the biggest herd she’d ever seen, and somehow they hadn’t had any warning. How could the lookout have missed _this_? But it didn’t matter – survival instincts kicked in, and then her only thoughts were _find Yang. Find your family. Get out._

Gunshots. They rushed towards the sound, hoping for Atlas, finding Emerald and Mercury instead. For a second Emerald’s gun trained on her and Ruby was scared, then, that somehow they had something to do with it, a moment of paranoia, but she put the gun down and breathed heavily, skin and clothes coated in thick red blood, and she knew they were victims too.

“Where’s Roman and Neo?” Ruby asked.

“Dead,” Mercury said.

Ruby swallowed the lump in her throat and with it the hysteria rising through her, threatening to burst. _It can't happen again._

Penny’s clammy fingers intertwined with hers and cleared her head.

“There’s another exit out back to the mountains, but we'll have to clean a path.” Not as many had reached the south end of the settlement, and it seemed their only escape, but she hadn’t seen Yang, she hadn’t seen her dad, she hadn’t seen Uncle Qrow - all she could do was hope ( _pray_ ) they’d made it out some other way as they sprinted through the streets close together.

A few stragglers fell with shots impressively precise from Emerald and Mercury, and one of them she recognised; Peach, a woman just a bit older than her dad, who joined them when they first made it to Vale, mindless then dead in an instant. It was all they could do to get through, but more followed the sound – she realised with a lurch of her stomach they were the only ones left shooting – until they found themselves surrounded from every side.

They closed in and Ruby impaled one quick, sharp. To the back had seemed a clear shot but there were so _many of them_ creeping out from behind the scaffoldings, stumbling over bodies – Penny took one down, Emerald and Mercury fired their guns twice more but they had to be running out of bullets, she knew they didn’t have any in the storage basement. Decaying fingers stroked Ruby’s back and she stabbed that one, too, then another hand groped her, and another, until they had to sprint to keep ahead of them.

“It’s right there!” she yelled breathlessly – this gate was smaller, half hidden behind dead branches, and the path outside far more perilous than the roads out front.

Penny tripped.

Ruby stopped. She had time to, because the zombies swarmed her fallen friend like sharks, dipping down to bite at her skin.

_It’s fine. She’s immune. She can’t catch it._

Ruby reached forwards but snapped back fast, rotten faces turned on her scent. Penny let out a little gasp of pain but nothing more as she reached out towards her, scrambling to get back to her feet, so _it was fine, she’s immune, she can’t catch it,_  it wasn't that bad, the bites weren't that bad _._ She slashed through the zombies that honed in on her but there were too many closing in, she just couldn’t get a hold of Penny to pull her free.

“Ruby.”

She realised somebody had been repeating her name. “Ruby. Ruby! It’s too late, you have to move.”

“You don’t understand!”

“You have to show us where to go!”

God, she was bleeding so much, fat chunks missing from her legs, and she’d stopped making any noise at all. Now the pained gasp came from Ruby instead, choked sob grating through her tight throat as a warm hand tensed on her shoulder, tugging her back. Another shot drew her attention to the gate where Mercury stood, locks broken, door swinging free. “Em!” he shouted. Emerald’s dark eyes met Ruby’s light and a question screamed there – _coming or not?_

Penny’s eyes were closed.

“Y-yeah.” Her voice rasped and for a moment she thought she saw sympathy, but then Emerald turned and ran and Ruby’s legs dragged her forwards and left Penny behind. Immune, but not to that. Not to being torn to shreds and bleeding out in the dirt. Immune, but not immortal.

They didn’t stop running till they reached the treeline at the foot of the mountain, adequate cover from the writhing mess Mountain Glenn became. From their new height she saw them like ants, but not her friends. Not her family.

She sank to her knees and shoved the palms of her hands into her eyes, gasping for breath like waking from a nightmare. How many times? The unlikely pair she’d escaped with talked amongst themselves quietly, but Ruby wasn’t listening anyway. Her mind was blank. She felt numb.

“Ruby,” Emerald crouched down to say, but this time she didn’t touch. She waited until Ruby dislodged her face from her hands. “Mercury said there’s a town you’re meant to meet at.”

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“Blondie. I was talking to her when the wall broke.”

Ruby blinked the tears from her eyes, sniffing loudly. She wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve jacket. “Did she- did she get out?”

Mercury shrugged. “She went with your friends.”

If she had Weiss and Blake, maybe they had a chance together. No – they definitely made it. There was no way they weren’t already on their way to town. She wouldn’t let herself think anything else.

“Okay,” she said. “It’s- it’s not far. It’s a couple of days walking.” Her voice still shook, but she steadied it the best she could. Penny died, but the others could still be alive, and it wouldn’t be long until the horde moved on in search for fresh meet. Grief would have to come later. They couldn’t stay. She had to be logical. They had to keep moving.

“Okay,” she repeated, struggling to her feet. “Let’s move.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry you had to have known this was coming.


	8. Keep Moving

“Yang!”

 _Thud._ A blade skimmed past her head and the zombie fell. Yang inhaled. She had one arm. She had one _arm,_ how could she do anything to help? Panic welled up through her, feet frozen where they stood, flashes of memories of teeth and blood and burning in her veins-

“Yang!” Weiss repeated, fingers gripping her wrist. “Keep up.”

Then she was being dragged, her surroundings tangible again, and the memory was almost preferable. Their _home._ It had been so long since they’d had one, and now she watched as it drowned in corpses, everything they’d spent so long building and collecting. God, Ruby _deserved_ a home, not sleeping in barns and dirty mattresses and fallen leaves-

“Wait. _Wait,_ ” she said, pulling against Weiss’s grip. Blake stopped ahead, turning to the noise. “We- we need to find Ruby first.”

Blake’s eyes drifted behind Yang, and when she looked back she understood: nothing would get them back through the throngs of dead. She bit her lip and tasted blood.

“She made it, Yang,” Blake told her with confidence. “She always makes it.”

Yang tried to speak but her words jammed in her throat.

Weiss said, “She’s probably waiting outside.”

Glynda was, and Ozpin. A little further down they found Coco. Zwei barked, voicing her anxiety. They found Dove and Cardin on their town’s outskirts, and Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi resting in the empty fields. Then she heard her name yelled and her dad caught up, throwing his arms around her and burying his head in her hair, hardly holding back his relief.

“Where’s Ruby?” was all she could ask.

“She’s not with you?”

Panic, again. She felt her heart quicken, eyes widen. “ _No._ ”

They waited an hour before moving on. Ruby knew the evacuation plan. She could have left first – Qrow was nowhere to be found, either, so perhaps they’d left together. The uncertainty, though, she was sure would kill her in the time it would take for them to reach the town. Every step took her closer to or further from her little sister, and if something had happened to her… if anything had happened to her, Yang didn’t know what she’d do.  

 

* * *

 

Emerald’s teeth chattered and the cold only seemed to deepen, spreading from the tips of numb fingers straight to her centre. When she huffed her breath hung in the air in foggy little wisps, and she wished she’d thought ahead enough to pick up something warmer for the journey. They’d walked two hours and already she was reaching her limit. Her survival skills were theft and murder, not trekking through the woods in the freezing late winter.

It was a far cry from the damp but shielded rooms of WTCH Labs, even further from the comfortable beds of Mountain Glenn now laid to waste miles away, another town lost to the infection.

Such a shame. They may have planned to leave, but she didn’t want this. More than anything else she’d seen since the outbreak Mountain Glenn took her back to _real_ life, a time before the terror, but just like the rest of the world, it was never going to last.

“No Atlas, then?”

Emerald narrowed her eyes at Mercury and checked ahead. Ruby walked some distance in front, quiet, for once, keeping to herself. “There’s not much point now.”

Roman was dead. Neo was as good as, where they’d left her. Emerald wasn’t sure if she’d mourn them; right now it didn’t feel real. The image of blood spreading across white linen seemed out of a dream, not something that happened mere hours ago. They’d been brought together without much choice, but they’d been familiar, and that was as close to comfort as Emerald ever got.

She kept trying to tell herself _you’ll never hear that patronising bastard call you ‘kid’ again_ to force out some kind of reaction, but her fingers weren’t the only thing numb.

The sun set a bloody orange through the dead branches overheard, and night fell soon after. Her feet ached all the way to her thighs until she was dragging herself forwards through the foliage, but Mercury suffered worse, desperately needing time to rest his leg where it rubbed against his prosthetic but stubbornly refusing to ask for it. Beneath the dim starlight she could see his pale face pulled into a grimace. He’d never admit he was done for the night.

“We need to stop,” Emerald said. “It’s late. We could get turned back around in the dark.”

Ruby came to a still and took a long moment to turn and face them, moving back in silent acceptance. In a small clearing they lit a fire and lay in damp, decaying leaves beside it, close to each other as pride would allow. It was warmer, but only marginally, just enough to ensure none of them died of hypothermia in the night.

The pain lulled Mercury to a quick, fretful sleep but Emerald stayed awake listening to the gentle sobs that fell from Ruby’s lips, muffled by her knees.

Two people on watch are better than one, she justified. It wasn’t like she was sleeping anyway.

“Hey,” she said as she moved in beside her. Ruby hardly moved, just blinked at her in the red glow of the fire. “I’m sorry.”

Ruby sniffed. “It’s not your fault. I just- I should have helped her faster. I can’t believe she’s gone.”

The fire crackled and Emerald stared. She held her fingers close enough to the flame to feel the hot lick of it then retreated, rubbing her hands together. It was no longer uncomfortably cold, but doing something with her hands helped the awkwardness of the situation. Maybe she should have just pretended to be asleep until it was her turn to take over.

“I’m sorry about Roman and Neo,” Ruby said. “They seemed nice.”

A wry smile crept onto Emerald’s face because she knew she wasn’t the only liar, then – Roman and Neo always seemed exactly like the anti-social pricks they were. “It’s not your fault,” she echoed. “We couldn’t have done anything different.”

Night merged seamlessly into dawn, early morning rainfall hindered only slightly by the trees. She managed maybe an hour or two of sleep, but it seemed double what Ruby had, and Mercury didn’t seem much better for the rest he’d taken either.

Midday rolled in and Mercury’s arm shot out fast enough to make Emerald trip, to stop her in her tracks. He held his finger to his lips and nodded ahead. A twig snapped. Though Ruby had paused too she moved on, then, to follow the sound, and Mercury grabbed her arm too. Emerald shook her head sharply.

They found a ditch not quite deep enough to hide Mercury from sight, but the bushes surrounding it helped for cover. It might have been other Mountain Glenn survivors, but together she and Mercury had ambushed enough people to know when not to take that chance. Images of the smouldering fire they left behind that morning made her anxious. Had someone followed the smoke?

“Nothing there anyway,” she caught one man say as they approached. An unfamiliar voice, and when she looked at Ruby she shrugged her silent response in confirmation – _not one of mine._

“Always worth the shot,” a woman responded. “Besides, a couple more weeks of food is nothing to complain about. And if nothing else, it’d make a nice base.”

“Last thing she wants is us settling down.” The voices drew nearer, a few short feet away when they both came to a stop. “You really think we can do this forever? Just enough to survive, and then move on? Don’t you want a real bed to come home to?”

Then a sudden snarl of a growl sounded in her ear and a splatter of blood made her gasp. Still the zombie in the ditch groped for her, first slash insufficient; Ruby followed it down to the ground and stabbed again, impaling between its eyes. A hand parted the bushes and Mercury fired his last shot. It pierced her chest and she made an awful choking sound as she stumbled forwards and down between them. A sidearm lay strapped to her thigh and Emerald took it fast, fired it faster into the man struggling with his own. Then it was quiet, nothing but the gentle rustle of leaves in the breeze and her heart beating in her throat.

Habit brought her to her knees to check the body. Nothing.

“You killed them!” Ruby followed them out the ditch, muddy knees and blood speckled like freckles over her nose and cheeks. “You- why did you-?”

Where the second man lay gasping two zombies crouched, shredding his skin with their mouths and fingers. From them protruded something long and metal that strapped to their chests like a ring round a barrel, like they’d been lassoed and-

Oh.

She’d never seen such a horde before, not even when she was trapped in that house, not even in the cells of WTCH Labs at their fullest. Zombies were not social creatures, they didn’t hunt in packs - they went where the flesh was, no collaboration, just dumb luck bringing them together.

Dumb luck or human hands.

They disposed of the zombies in silence, but Ruby stood over the three bodies long after they stopped breathing. It was a dangerous expression on her face that flickered from fury to despair to disbelief. “People did this,” she whispered. “They took the zombies and brought them to Mountain Glenn. They wanted our stuff… why would anyone do this?”

That night they found a cabin and checked every room, cupboard, wardrobe for the dead. She fought Mercury over the only bed and lost, took the armchair instead while Ruby slept on the sofa. When morning came she shifted and a heavy jacket slid from her lap, thick brown leather and several sizes too large for her slight frame.

“I found some clothes,” Ruby said. Though she sat just a few feet away her voice sounded distant, like she was speaking through a phone. Her own shoulders were cloaked in similarly oversized fur-lined denim that drowned her completely. “For Mercury, too. He’s in the kitchen fixing his leg.” A beat of silence passed as Ruby picked at the threads of her new jacket. “I didn’t know about it.”

“He keeps it quiet,” Emerald told her. “I’ll see if he needs help.”

He didn’t, of course. She only needed a reason to speak to him alone.

“What do you think?” she asked perched on the country counter, cracks in the window whistling with the wind outside. “Should we keep following?”

Mercury reattached his prosthetic, the skin above it raw and red. “Not many other options.”

“I thought you’d want to join the raiders.”

“Fuck, no,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere near those things.”

His jacket was grey and still too big for him. Whoever owned the house must have been a giant.

They left the woods that day and reached the town after one more long night of walking down the roadside and never encountered another raider, the zombies they did slay unchained and free roaming in groups no larger than five. A few minutes in and they found the first corpses, zombies bludgeoned and stabbed and one or two shot, and Ruby’s pace quickened, emboldened.

At the tall metal gates to what looked like the local high school stood a man tan and blonde, and Ruby’s relief was tangible, mood lifting so suddenly, so powerfully it was impossible not to mirror her smile as they walked through the trail of dust she left behind.

 

* * *

 

It took forever for them to hug and cry and comfort one another, and he and Emerald hovered awkwardly at the gates until one of the adults took pity and showed them inside.

“It was named Beacon High School,” Oobleck explained as he lead them down collaged corridors, a dusty trophy case with photographs of long dead sports teams and cheerleaders. “Fitting, don’t you think? Like a new beacon of hope after all we’ve faced together.”

Emerald gave a non-committal hum. Mercury didn’t respond at all.

“We arrived last night and cleared out what we could find, but you would do well to check your classroom before you rest. I assume you two are happy to share?” They nodded. “Good, good. It is imperative nobody is left alone after the events of Mountain Glenn. For now I’m afraid there is nowhere particularly comfortable to lie, but we will be liberating bedding from the surrounding houses as soon as possible, so you won’t suffer long.”

“Why a school?” Emerald asked. They’d passed houses, after all.

“Why, it has everything we need to survive, my dear. We can block off the east side until it’s needed, make use of the cafeteria and its remaining stock. A tighter-knit community seems apt until we can ensure we’re safe. Here we are.” A pause for breath – the man spoke dizzyingly fast, and Mercury shot Emerald a look that said _don’t ask another question, idiot,_ and she’d known him long enough to understand even if she wasn't happy about it. “Make yourselves comfortable. We’re all on the first floor – I’ll be in MB16 if you need anything. Not that we have anything, but the offer’s still there.”

Once he left Mercury removed his prosthetic, a sigh of relief escaping the moment the pressure eased on his stump. A three-day walk was a push and that frustrated him beyond belief, but at least he hadn’t been dead weight slowing them down even if he did suffer for it now.

Emerald checked the closet and the partition that lead into the classroom next door while he leaned back where he sat against the wall. All clear.

She sat on one of the desks and looked down at him. “We can’t tell them anything about where we came from. You saw how Ruby reacted to us killing those freaks.”

So they were staying. Not the safest of bets, but better than their other options until the people of Mountain Glenn – of _Beacon_ – got sick of him.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” he said.

There was a knock at the door and Yang walked in, puffy eyed and hoarse when she spoke. “Ruby told us about the raiders. She’s strong, you know? But she’s too- she wouldn’t have killed a person. I don’t know if she would have made it without you guys helping her, so… _thank you._ ”

And she hugged Emerald, and Emerald tensed at the contact but returned it politely, and then she leant down to hug him, too. Yang was unbelievably warm despite how cold it was outside. Awkwardly he patted her back, and she kissed his cheek before she pulled away and smiled at both of them, bright and kind. “It’s gonna suck here for a couple of days. Ozpin’s gonna want us all double checking for zombies and blocking off the parts we aren’t using. But after that? It should be pretty sweet. We almost stopped here before, but everyone wanted to try real houses and stuff.”

“Yeah, that went well,” Mercury commented, and Yang shrugged.

“It did most the time. It’s not like we have a manual to work from here. This time’s gonna work though, I can feel it,” and she winked at him, full of confidence, like Ruby’s return made them all invincible. “We’re opposite you, if you get bored later. Ruby already passed out so she’ll probably be up at some stupid hour.”

When the door closed Emerald raised her eyebrows at him questioningly, and he pretended not to understand.

“Why did you get a kiss?” she asked.

“Aww, jealous?” She threw an empty pencil case from the desk at his head and he dodged with a quiet snort of laughter. “Can’t help being so good looking, Em. Want me to tell her you want one too?” he added, because she’d already used up her ammunition.

He wasn’t entirely sure he’d make it through the night after that, but he woke up with all his remaining limbs attached, his blood still inside his body where it belonged. Sleeping on the floor had never felt so good, because it came with the knowledge that there would be no more walking required – they were staying at Beacon, and strangely, it didn’t feel like a last resort.


	9. Normality

Wake up, group up, send the scouts, block the doors, block the windows, sit on watch, open the gates, let the scouts in, count supplies, go to bed.

Repeat.

The week that followed flowed exactly as Yang expected, and the rhythmic banality of it was comforting. It was easy to lose herself in the work needed to make Beacon a home, easy to drown out thoughts of their losses beneath the drum of a hammer, or the low murmur of conversation between her and her friends as they watched the empty neighbourhood streets from the school gates for survivors.

Some made it back. More didn’t. On the third day static fizzled on their one remaining radio and Qrow’s voice passed through, crackled and distant but confirming his and Ironwood’s escape and detour to Atlas for who-knew-what. That left six unaccounted for. As numbers, it sounded good. Emotionally…

Despite it all, somehow things had worked out not okay, but better than they could have hoped. Mountain Glenn was gone, but enough survived to carry on its legacy.

“Tight enough?”

Yang felt the base of her ponytail. Stray hairs trailed down her back and a strand tickled her nose. “Mhm,” she hummed anyway, brushing it behind her ear. “Thanks, Rubes.”

Rebuilding was an exercise in learning her own capabilities, too. The all-consuming fear that stilled her when Mountain Glenn fell, when the horde crawled hungrily towards her and her friends, proved what she had already known: she wasn’t ready to face zombies again, and they were unlikely give her the time to properly recover.

She hated that.

The warm orange glow of sunrise illuminated Ruby’s pleased smile as she took a moment to admire her handiwork. Blake and Weiss had already moved on to their day’s post blocking the fourth-floor fire escapes to prevent unauthorised entry, but the sisters remained in their classroom beneath salvaged duvets, taking their time.

“Sooo I asked Em if she wanted to be on watch with us today.” Her words broke the comfortable early morning silence and Yang tilted her head curiously. “They were so nice to me after-“ she paused, taking a breath. “When we made our way here. I want to make sure they know they’re a part of Team Beacon.”

Emerald and Mercury didn’t spend much time with anyone but themselves, mostly retreating to their room as soon as the day’s work was done. “What about Mercury?”

“I didn’t see him to ask.”

“I’ll patrol with him instead,” she said. “No point having four of us sitting in one place. We can make sure nothing bad got in overnight.”

“Sounds good to me!”

Ruby left and Yang dressed awkwardly, jeans a particular difficulty with just one arm, but she hated her sister seeing her struggle, too, and preferred to do it in privacy. Ruby probably guessed – the way she chewed her lip before she left, glancing over her shoulder, holding something back certainly indicated that – but she wouldn’t say anything about it. What was the point? It would only upset them both.

Before she left she zipped her jacket on the desk, hooked the bottom stop through the slider with her teeth and grimaced at the tangy, metallic taste it left in her mouth. It took her almost a minute, and pulling it over her head wasn’t easy but she managed somehow, she always did, but she didn't want to just 'manage', she wanted to be _capable_ again and it frustrated her beyond measure, like she didn’t have enough to worry about without adding ‘dressing’ to her list.

She sighed and tied the loose sleeve over her stump, shaking off the thoughts that came and went sporadically. No point moping over it – there was nothing she could do to change what happened to her.

And anyway, she had a pretty good idea of how to manage frustration.

“Morning! You’re with me today.”

From where he lounged against the wall of his room Mercury cocked an eyebrow at her inexplicably cheery tone, expression blank and unreadable. “Yeah?” he asked. “Why’s that?”

“Thought it was time we got to know each other better. You’ve got that whole quiet, mysterious thing going on, and it’s getting boring.”

“Ouch. Pretty sure you can’t be ‘mysterious’ and ‘boring’, blondie.”  Yang held out her hand to help Mercury up and he took it, mock offence quickly slipping to a smirk. When she pulled him up his mouth moved past her ear, voice an octave lower. “But nice to know I’ve got you so interested.”

“Yang,” she corrected, eyes narrowed briefly. Then she continued, tone just as flirtatious as she moved in close. “And maybe. Let’s see if you can keep my attention, huh?”

Screw it. Life was short, and Mercury was hot. What exactly was stopping her?

 

* * *

 

“What do you miss most about real life?”

Together they sat on the teacher’s desk they’d dragged to the window an hour prior. From there they could see a good portion of the quiet town, from the derelict houses down to the slow-moving zombies that weaved in and out of still traffic, over brown-grassed gardens to claw at dark empty windows for food. None wandered close to the gates, though in their low numbers even if they did it wouldn’t cause a problem. What worried Emerald wasn’t the sporadic dead, however, but the threat of the raiders they’d killed in the woods.

For the past week their conversation replayed in her mind. Was that what they sounded like? Her and Mercury? Why did it seem so heartless coming from strangers, but like survival from her own lips? Guilt weighed heavily on her heart. The sweet girl next to her had no idea the people they killed were no worse than Emerald herself.

“Earth to Em.”

She blinked the room back into focus and turned to Ruby.

“We used to play a game where we had to list all the things we miss from before. Silly things, obviously. I’ll start – I actually miss school.”

Their surroundings were almost unfamiliar to Emerald, a ‘problem child’ who spent more time feigning sickness or running rampant in the streets than in the classroom. School was not a thing she missed. She shrugged her shoulder to her ear and nodded, let Ruby decide whether it was agreement or simply affirmation that she’d heard, then looked down into the playground to think of something to say in return.

“I miss music,” she said. “Things get quiet without it.”

“I used to get in trouble _all_ the time for having my headphones on in class. I was so bad at paying attention.”

“Why didn’t you just get earphones? Hiding them is easier.”

“’cause they hurt.” She cupped her hand over her ears in demonstration, small pout forming that made Emerald snicker quietly. "Plus, they don't look as cool."

Ruby was good. Emerald never saw the world as black and white as that, but when it came to Ruby it was unequivocal. She knew she’d asked her to join her on watch to make sure she was okay – there was no subtlety in the way Ruby watched her out the corner of her eye, as if looking for signs of tear. Ruby lost a best friend, and yet there she was looking out for a stranger, trying her hardest to entertain her in the boring wasteland they now lived in.

Emerald wasn't sure what she was. Good, bad, or something in between.

“I miss baths,” Ruby said.

“Me too. And hot showers.”

“Baths were better. Especially with lots of bubbles.”

“The house was always too full to have enough time for one.”

Legs crossed Ruby swivelled around on the desk. A curious tilt of her head made her look like a little puppy. “Did you have a lot of brothers and sisters, then?” she asked.

“No,” Emerald replied. “I was in foster care.”

Eyebrows raised, Ruby seemed pleased to learn just a little about who Emerald had been before the world ended. Secretiveness had been engrained in her for as long as she could remember, but there was something easy about talking to Ruby that pulled truths from her effortlessly. 

“I miss group naps.” Ruby said when Emerald offered no more information, and smiled longingly out the window. “When you came home from school tired with your friends and just curled up together.”

Emerald’s brow wrinkled in amusement. “That’s not a thing.”

“Uh, yeah it is,” she countered. “We used to do it all the time! Yang, too. It’s awesome. A cuddle puddle.”

The absurdity of her claims made Emerald laugh, then, a small breath of it triggered by Ruby’s determined insistence. With some surprise Emerald realised she found it endearing. Against all odds, she liked Ruby’s company. A lot. 

“That’s stupid,” she said, smile still soft on her lips.

“Nope! I’ll prove it to you. When we’re not so busy, you and me? We’re napping, and you’re gonna realise it’s even more awesome than I said it was.”

“We’ll see.”

“You’re gonna feel so refreshed.”

“ _We’ll see._ ”

The sun was brighter now as winter came to an end, warm through the window where it fell on her hands. A zombie dragged itself from between the houses out into the streets and Emerald watched it, mind drifting blank in the new, comfortable quiet. Then a girl with orange-red hair threw herself into the corpse and slammed a knife through its skull, and a man dressed in green sped towards her in a hurry, checked her over and heaved a sigh so large she could see it all the way from the classroom.

To her left, Ruby’s breath hitched.

 

* * *

 

By the second floor he had her against the door of MB26, smug and predatory like he’d been the one to initiate things, not Yang. With his face so close she could take in his surprisingly strong cheekbones, stony deep set eyes, lips cracked from the cold – it solidified the fact that yes, this was a good decision. Voices carried from next door. His mouth hovered near hers and she laughed, dodging his kiss.

“Not here,” she said, hand against his chest putting distance between them.

He looked through the glass separating them and the hallway and snorted. “Don’t tell me I’m a dirty little secret.”

“Hey, my dad’s around.”

“What, he’s gonna chase me off with one of those shotguns you don’t have?”

“Worse,” Yang said. “He’ll want to _talk_ to you.”

Mercury pushed away.

Her dad was outside reinforcing the gates with Port and Oobleck, but she knew all too well how fast news travelled when life was cramped and boring. Pyrrha and Jaune hadn’t even finished their first kiss before Ruby knew. Weiss and Blake had hardly left their bedroom. Yang didn’t expect making out with Mercury in an empty classroom would be a secret for long, but she’d given it some thought since they’d reached Beacon and decided she didn’t really care - whatever it took to feel some semblance of normality, everyone else would just have to deal with.

(She'd still try for privacy, even with the rumour's inevitability.)

In the stairwell to the fourth floor he pinned her again, and this time she looped her arm around his neck, trying hard not to think on how weird it was to do with only one. At least it didn’t bother Mercury; he made up for the touching she couldn’t do, hands travelling from her waist to her hips before their lips even met. _Tease_. Anticipation sparked in her stomach as she leant forwards, her own lip caught between her teeth.

“Yang?”

She huffed and buried her face in his shoulder instead.

The voice came from the corridor below, echoed loudly off the empty halls and bounced into the stairwell at exactly the wrong time. Neither of them moved – she seriously considered staying quiet until it left again, but then if someone was looking for her it was probably important. She _hoped_ it was important.

“Yeah?” she called back, and Mercury groaned.

“There’s a meeting in the cafeteria in ten minutes,” Velvet said. “Could you spread the word?”

“Uh-huh.”

Mercury made to move but she held him firm by his jacket collar, waited for the sounds of Velvet’s footsteps to disappear before dragging him roughly towards her. His smirk against her lips made her snicker in return, fingers bunching in the fabric as his stretched up the nape of her neck.

They still had ten minutes, after all.


	10. It Will Be Fine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure: most the time I spent working on this chapter was trying to figure out where the hell all the different settlements/labs/towns were. My skill with directions is appalling. If something contradicts itself now or later........... I'm sorry I made a map and everything I Tried.
> 
> Enjoy!

Two extra chairs were pulled up to the long, plastic table for their most recent exhausted returnees, grimy with dirt and sweat, thinner and sicker the way people always looked when they made it back from a bad run, but in the simplest form of the word, well. Scouts and scavengers were always at risk, even more so when the place they expected to return to had been buried beneath writhing zombie bodies and the corpses of friends. An evacuation plan had seemed so unnecessary, but now Ruby knew not to question paranoia – without it, her friends would surely never have found them again.

“Oh my god.”

Yang joined a few minutes late but dashed the moment she saw them, wrapped her arm around Nora’s shoulder then Ren’s, embracing them both as tight as she could. Ruby had already been through the reunion hugs when she sprinted downstairs to meet them at the gate with delight, though that quickly diminished when she realised-

“Wait. Where’s Pyrrha? And Jaune?”

The story repeated.

The run had been unsuccessful. Sometimes it happened – few places had been left untouched in the five years since the infection began, and finding new locations to loot was always down to luck. Spring to fall was easier, when they could grow things for themselves. Winter was hard.

“We returned to Mountain Glenn,” Ren said, solemn. “We saw what happened. Few zombies remained, and so we did our best to collect what we could from the ruins.”

“Most our stuff was already gone. We figured, hey, maybe you guys got lucky! But we saw some people from Atlas in their uniforms… we saw _Penny_ , and- I’m sorry.” Nora looked at her knees, wringing her coat between her fingers. “We took too long.”

Ren placed a hand on her shoulder. Ruby chewed her lip, ignored the way her heart thudded painfully at the sound of Penny’s name.

“Together we made our way here, but our path was blocked by others – other survivors. They were not friendly.” Raiders, of course. How many others had they caused trouble for? “They shot at us and we were split up. Once they moved on we searched the area, but Pyrrha and Jaune were nowhere to be found.”

“We had to come back,” Nora interjected. “There wasn’t anything out there. We tried-“

“We know you did,” Weiss said. “You’d never leave them alone.”

Yang nodded in firm agreement. “Nora, I had to leave _Ruby_ behind. Look at you guys - you needed to get back. It’s been _weeks._ They know this is where we said we’d meet. Don’t blame yourselves. You did everything you could.”

But those raiders. What did they want? If they found Pyrrha and Jaune, would they have hurt them? They didn’t have anything to steal, but the things she’d overheard them say in the woods… maybe they would have killed them, just to get rid of the competition.

“Weiss and Yang are correct,” Ozpin spoke up, only listening until now. “This is not your fault. Glynda, perhaps you could show them to their room. We have few supplies, but enough food for a few more nights - get some rest and we’ll bring something up to you. For now, there are matters to attend to.”

The pair were ushered from the room as kind as Glynda could manage, though there was always something authoritarian about the way she moved, something firm and strict. Nora and Ren said nothing more. They only followed.

“We will need to send another party,” he continued the moment they were gone. “Do we have any volunteers?”

Ruby’s hand shot up. Weiss and Blake’s did too, and Coco, and Velvet, even Emerald.

“Ruby,” her dad spoke quietly, hand rested on her shoulder. “We need you here.” Offence spread over her face immediately, and she opened her mouth to protest but – there was a worry in his eyes that made her hesitate, made her swallow her guilt and look to the ground. It was true their family had been through a lot recently. If there were others willing to go then there was no need for her to risk herself, but… she _hated_ not being able to help.

Yang’s hand remained held over her stomach, eyes averted.

“Mercury and I can,” Emerald said. “We did it alone for years.”

Mercury scowled at her but didn’t decline, shrugged his shoulders and said nothing in response. Ozpin watched them carefully before nodding, gaze drifting to Weiss and Blake.

“You both can accompany them. Go in the morning, and keep an eye out for our missing friends. Food and medicine is your priority, but leave nothing that might have use. We need to rebuild what we had.”

Nerves wracked her instantly, an anxious ache that stung her throat. Two friends missing, and four more heading out to make up for what they’d failed to bring home. For so long Ruby felt invincible – they’d had beds, and electricity, and almost everything they thought they’d lost forever five years ago, and then when people left she knew they’d come back.

Now she wasn’t so sure. Even though they’d have the night together, when the conversation was done Ruby ran to Weiss and Blake and hugged them both close as she could.

It would be fine. It would be fine. It had to be fine.

 

* * *

 

Maybe Ruby was to blame. The eagerness with which her hand had rose before Ozpin even finished his request spurred something in Emerald, made her want to prove to _herself_ she was more than the people who took Mountain Glenn. For so long she’d thought selfishness was the only way to survive. A month out of the labs, and already she was already questioning that.  

If Mercury was too, she couldn’t tell. He never said a word about his own opinions, usually just did as he was told without thought. Maybe that was her answer – Mercury just didn’t care enough, and that seemed preferable to fretting over good and evil and where she fit into the whole thing.

It was warmer than it had been, though the mornings were still cool and crisp. Emerald tucked her hands into her back pockets and waited for Weiss and Blake to make their way down to the gate. Probably saying goodbye to their friends; their little group seemed grieved to be split apart, even for a few days. Unlike them, she and Mercury had experience in ‘dealing’ with other survivors, and the thought of running into the raiders or bandits or whatever they were calling them caused her little more concern than running into a zombie.  

“Good to see you so prepared,” Weiss said as the pair made their approach. She had a somewhat patronising lilt to her voice that Emerald had already learned was simply how she spoke. She imagined her quite rich when that meant something. No way would they have met back then.

“We were waiting for you,” Emerald replied.

Both girls carried rucksacks over their shoulders, Blake’s black, Weiss’s white. “Yang and Ruby kept us,” Blake told them. “Oh. They said to tell you to keep safe, too.”

Mountain Glenn was east, along with the mall they met in. Blake said most of the area between had been scouted, but if they made their way north-east there stood a little town that could be insignificant enough for most survivors to pass by. One day they’d need to move west, and if they carried on that way for a week they could reach the labs. She’d stay away from that search. What Salem and her scientists would do if they returned she couldn’t be sure, but she had no doubt it wouldn’t be good for any of them.

None of the vehicles from Mountain Glenn made it to Beacon. That meant they had to walk, which meant Mercury would complain, but she couldn’t imagine going without him, and he’d have said no if it bothered him that much anyway. At least it gave them a clear goal – find something that could carry all four of them, that they could pack with supplies and drive back home. Emerald had seen someone hotwire a car before. Surely with their fucked up childhoods they could figure it out together, if only they could find a suitable candidate.

“How far did the last sign say?” Weiss asked, almost whined. The sun had passed its highest point quickly, and still they’d found nothing of worth.

“Thirty-five miles,” Blake said.

Medicine was another priority. Ren and Nora had managed to salvage some from the ruins of Mountain Glenn, but their stores were still lacking - no antibiotics, no strong painkillers, nothing for the major incidents sure to occur, and those who searched the immediate area were unsuccessful. The town awaited a day’s walk away if the signs were to be trusted, and with any luck there’d be _something_ to salvage within.

At the labs Emerald had gotten used to having everything she wanted. That familiar stress of need that plagued the people they lived with now was more reminiscent of her life before, before even the foster homes. She hadn’t missed it.

Once more they stopped in a little farm house not unlike the one she’d found with Mercury and Ruby. In fact, it could have been the same place – net curtains, old-lady clutter of porcelain dolls and cross-stitched quotations in frames, grained kitchen surfaces and a small wood fire overlooking an old flat rug. The sun had set only recently, and despite the walk none of them were tired, and so they sat in the living room in an awkward silence. Even when she was trying to ‘make friends’ she’d never talked much to their accompanying pair.

“It’s… homely,” Weiss spoke uncertainly.

“You don’t have to pretend you like it when its owners aren’t around.” There was amusement in Blake’s words, however, and when Weiss scoffed and rolled her eyes she snickered softly.

“I stayed with an old woman who had a house like this, once.” It would be a long journey if she kept as quiet as they had been. “She never opened the windows. It smelled so bad.”

“My house could have fit ten of these inside. I- that’s not a _brag,_ ” Weiss clarified quickly, “it was just very… different. I had no idea places like this even existed until I left. I thought they died out in the fifties.”

Emerald was right. Rich. “Must have been nice,” she said.

“It might have been. My family, unfortunately, were not.”

She sneaked a glance at Mercury, fire iron in hand, poking at the flames, and wasn’t the only one to notice how he avoided the conversation. Blake regarded him, spoke tentatively. “Yang keeps mentioning you. She has a habit of targeting and befriending the quietest survivors.” Her lip twitched fondly, something knowing in her tone. “She’s not bothering you, is she?”

For a second his movements paused. Then he gave his signature ‘I don’t care about anything’ shrug, expression still. “Nah. She’s alright.” High praise. That was all he said, though, never quite having mastered the art of communication without insults or flirtation.

After that it was quiet again, and they found themselves a place to rest up for tomorrow’s long walk.

They left as soon as the sun rose, and an hour or two after midday they made it to the town. It was _busy,_ not with as many zombies as the mall nor Mountain Glenn when it was overrun, but enough to make them need to think their movements through carefully. They circled it – figured out their exits. From the outside she saw buildings that looked more commercial than residential, and maybe there there’d be a pharmacy, or a grocery store, or just _something_ to stop them from that feeling of scrambling to get by.

“Oh, look. Beans and rice. It’s been _so_ long.”

Well. At least it had a grocery store.

Weiss sighed as she filled her bag with tins and plastic, but it was better than nothing - Emerald had gone hungry before, after all, and would gladly gorge herself on the same old meal if it meant never having to suffer it again.

It was back outside that they made their real discovery, an open garage that drew Mercury to a slow stop.

“My dad had that car,” he said.

Emerald looked. It was black and dirty, side window smashed jaggedly. “So?”

“Never had his keys.”

The garage was well stocked. Emerald leaned in through the shattered window to hand Mercury screwdriver, bolt cutters with some irritability like she was his damn assistant while he sat inside and jammed open the cover, Weiss and Blake taking point to ensure the coast was clear. It pried open easily, old and battered as it was, roil of wires hanging in three bright colours. At school she’d helped someone steal a teacher’s car, and knew exactly what would come next: peel back the red and brown insulation, twist them together, peel back the brown, sparks. Mercury did it with surprising care.

Not that it mattered. The panel fell, and the alarm sounded.

The sound made her jump, slip half way through the window, shard of glass embedded in her shoulder as she caught herself on the seat.

“Fuck, Mercury!” The pain was sharp. The noise was worse. “What the fuck?”

“What are you guys doing!?” Weiss screeched over it, matching its pitch. “They’re coming!”

He snipped the second wire and third in quick succession and Emerald groaned, hand pressed hard on her new wound as the groans grew in volume, closer. The back doors snapped open as Weiss and Blake scrambled inside and Emerald followed suit, slamming it closed as a head forced through the open window.

Mercury sparked the wires and the roar of alarms stopped; he slipped back in his seat, engine revving as Emerald freed her knife from her pocket and crashed it into the zombie’s head, no time to retrieve it at the speed with which they backed into the corpses clawing at the trunk. It bumped uncomfortably, ran bodies over with a sickening crunch, slammed through the crowd that closed in from all corners of the town.

Out the drive he accelerated.

“You’re bleeding,” Blake said. Emerald looked at the slash in her arm, blood seeping through the thin jacket. She took it off and inspected the damage – deep. Enough to need stitches, probably.

“It’s not a bite,” she groaned as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Caught it on the glass.”

“Shit, Em. It looks bad.”

“Eyes on the road,” Weiss snapped at Mercury, then removed her scarf from around her neck to pass through to the front seat. Emerald took it and wrapped it carefully, winced whenever she made contact with the torn flesh. It was better than nothing, and it wasn’t like she’d die from blood loss, but shit, did it hurt.

“It’s fine. Just keep driving.”

The town was small enough that within minutes they were back on the highway, zombies only distant features of the scenery. She let out a shuddering breath and fell back against her seat, heart still beating hard in her chest. It was a good thing the car had gas – god, they should have checked that before. A simple scavenging mission had almost ended in disaster, all for some stupid rice and canned beans.  

“Didn’t know this model had an alarm,” Mercury said. He glanced at the makeshift bandage and gave an irritable sigh. “My dad’s must’ve been fucked.” It wasn’t an apology, but it was as close as he’d give, and Emerald nodded.

The adrenaline had hardly stopped when Weiss leapt forward in her seat, hands on both headrests as she yelled out, “Stop the car!”

Mercury’s foot came down fast. All four of them jolted forwards, held on to the roof to stay in place at its suddenness. Emerald turned, mouth open as she prepared to ask what the _hell_ Weiss thought she was doing because the spike of pain that shot up through her made being _nice_ incredibly difficult, but then she saw the look on her face, glanced at Blake and saw it mirrored, followed their gaze to what stood before them.

A single zombie in the road, blond and lanky, fresh, dragging his feet as he stumbled forwards. His dead eyes stared through their car unseeingly and blood caked his shoulder, teeth marks surely present beneath his tattering shirt.

Weiss reached blindly back to clutch at her girlfriend’s arm. The name slipped from her lips, agonised.

“ _Jaune._ ”


	11. Grief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [More art from the amazing Adox!!](https://fanaticalparadox.tumblr.com/post/160072903443/okok-so-i-sketched-these-real-quick-when-i-wanted) Perfect for this chapter, really.

They couldn’t take him to be buried. The car was small, and throwing him in the trunk seemed unthinkable, even to her. Blake stepped out into the cold and ended him quickly, laid him to rest at the side of the road stoic and silent as Weiss bit back tears.

“I was so mean to him,” she croaked. “I wish I hadn’t been so mean.”

By the time they reached Beacon Emerald couldn’t feel sorry for them anymore. The pain in her arm was severe, and walking through the traffic they couldn’t manoeuvre with their car made her dizzy. Past the gates they took her to the cafeteria, where she sat at the table and let Oobleck clean away the dirt and sweat. Stitching was about as much fun as she’d expected, fingers gripped hard enough to pierce the skin of her thigh as the needle dipped in and out of the sensitive tissue, biting back the shouts that stumbled in her throat.

It was almost light again when he finally finished tending to her wound. Bed rest, he said, until she recovered. That she couldn’t argue – sleep sounded fantastic. But along the way to her room she saw Ruby, eyes red again, red with tears more often than they were grey, and felt a pang of- sympathy.

“Are you okay?” Stupid question.

“No.” It didn’t surprise her to hear the way Ruby’s voice shook, achingly sad. Emerald closed her eyes, exhaled, shook her head. What could she say?

“I’m supposed to sleep. If you want-“ she hesitated, brow furrowed. “If you want we can do that stupid nap thing. Or whatever.”

Shoulders shuddering, eyes wet, hand rubbing beneath her nose, Ruby nodded.

 

* * *

 

Yang and Jaune hadn’t been close. Like with Penny, he was more a friend of Ruby’s than a friend of hers, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like the boy - sweet, goofy, a little awkward but always well intentioned. When she was bitten, she’d been so terrified. She hoped Jaune hadn’t gone through that alone.

She didn’t cry. She’d cried when Ruby returned, but before that it had been – she thought back, trying hard to remember. When her mom died she cried. After that, nothing else sprang to mind. Death happened so frequently that reacting naturally never felt enough, felt practised and rehearsed and _meaningless_. Somehow that meant shoving it back down. Biting back her sadness. Business as usual was so much easier.

This time her quiet kind of grief carried her across the hall, to knock at the door of the man she knew lay alone within, because Emerald slept in her room, Ruby curled around her back.

“They’re taking a few days off,” she said, managing a twitch of a smile. “Guess it’s you and me again.”

 

* * *

 

_Beneath her feet the floorboards creaked. Movements quick, steps light and brief. She couldn’t disturb them._

_She held the handle. Her heart beat louder, heavy thumps like missing steps over and over again. She was warm – too warm. Sweat trickled down her brow, shoulder aching, veins throbbing there instead. A hand on her waist shook gently._

Emerald opened her eyes.

A gasp drew her upright; a wince brought her back down. Ruby’s hand was ice cold against her side, but refreshingly so. She blinked. The sun pouring through the windows was harsh and bright.

“You were twitching,” Ruby explained apologetically, taking back her hand. “And mumbling. Are you feeling okay?”

Not really. Her skin felt sticky, coated with a fine sheen of sweat. The temperature had only increased since their return, spring finally breaking through the long winter. Ruby at her side didn’t help. She was so _clingy_ in her sleep.

She didn’t mind as much as she pretended.

The concern that dulled her face was unfamiliar to Emerald. Brow furrowed she nodded, shook off the images that lingered at the back of her mind. For the past few days all she’d done was sleep and rest, yet still she felt exhausted. Maybe she lost more blood than she’d thought.

Ruby fidgeted beside her, blanket wrung between her fingers. “I- had a nightmare, too.”

No interruption. Emerald didn’t know whether she wanted to hear, nor if Ruby wanted to tell it. It was probably that silence that pushed her to continue.

“… I was in the car with Jaune. He was worried about something, like- I think he was running from someone. Driving from someone - he was the one driving. My heart was beating so fast.” Her teeth made indents in her lower lip. “We hit a girl in the road and she just… _flew_ over the bonnet. When I checked to see if Jaune was okay his skin was flaky, and his face went all funny. He tried to bite me. Then I woke up.”

To Emerald thrashing in her sleep, if her look was any indication. At least her nightmare had spared Ruby some of hers. The only response she could conjure was another nod, and she hoped her expression seemed as sympathetic as it was genuine, but it felt like a grimace.

Ruby faced away and slid from beneath the sheets. “You want something to eat?”

“Okay,” she answered.

“Well, I hope you like rice.”

It was an attempt at humour, but her voice fell flat. Emerald might have tried a laugh or even a smile, but her eyes were heavy, and the moment Ruby left she returned to unconsciousness.

 

* * *

  

“One. Two. _Three_.”

_Slam._ Knuckles to the table, one second flat. Mercury snorted, unclenched his fingers from hers and shook off his hand. _That was some grip_. “Thought it was on ‘go’.”

“Uh-huh,” Yang said, smugness oozing. “Need a minute, or are you ready to go again?”

The morning before, Yang’s dad left with Glynda and Oobleck and Port, a make-up run for the supplies their temporary group failed to bring back. Another knock on his door and he was seriously beginning to believe he was nothing more than Yang’s distraction.

Not that he’d complain. Even when they weren’t making out, Yang’s company was better than the rest of them - easily irritated, argumentative, flirtatious, and he had to appreciate someone so determined to ignore her own emotions. It sure beat the rest of her friends and the living museum of grief the school had so suddenly become.

He took her hand. Elbows thumped on the desk and her fingers tensed between his, tongue flicking across her lips, eyes alight with determination.

“One. Two. Three.”

The second attempt was more of a struggle; he felt the tension strain his triceps, far more difficult than it should have been. _Slam._ This time her knuckles hit the desk instead. The offence that spread over her face was hilarious. She closed her mouth and scowled. “Okay, I’m right handed, so-“

“ _I’m_ right handed,” he laughed.

Lips pursed, eyes narrowed, she spread her fingers. “Again.”

This time he reached for her neck, held the nape of it and tugged her forwards. Like everything else, Yang kissed like it could have a winner – hot breath and teeth and one surprisingly grabby hand she clenched in his t-shirt to drag herself towards him.

Sat on the desk she locked her legs around his hips, and it was all hormones from there. Clothes hurriedly half-discarded, skin bruised beneath lips and too-tight fingers, grinding, gasping, biting down on her shoulder. There was no hesitation when she felt him hard against her thigh; they fucked on the desk, and when he came she hid her groan in his neck, the hottest thing he’d ever heard even muffled. 

She fell back on her elbow to catch her breath, eyes closed, and before he could even pull out she mumbled a quiet, “Oops.”

“Oops?” Mercury repeated, his own breaths shallow. A glance over his shoulder and he pulled up his pants, covered his prosthetic.

“Didn’t mean to get so, uh- carried away.”

He took her seat when she eventually stood to redress, watched her move around the room with a smirk. “You trying to hurt my feelings, blondie?”  

“Shut up.” But he saw the smile she hid behind her vest. “Not like that. Just, the end of the world isn’t great for birth control, you know?”

“Oh.” That.

Yang’s laughter began light, delved into hysterics when she caught the look on his face. It took a moment for her to calm – he watched through narrowed eyes, not in on the joke. “Relax,” she said. “Hard to believe, but we got lucky on a drugstore run once. The only things we _didn’t_ use up were aspirin and Plan B.”

“You really needed to pick that up?”

“Hey, we’re doomed, not celibate.” Her fingers traced the new bruise on her shoulder. “Obviously. Look, I had a pregnancy nightmare a while back and stole a pack. I saw the movies - I’m not having a zombie baby. Or any baby.”

It felt a _very_ strange conversation to have so immediately after just one fuck, but he’d already learned Yang’s mouth moved faster than her thoughts. When she finished speaking she shuddered, snickered, walked over to peck him on the lips. That surprised him more than anything else, softer than he’d anticipated, and though he tensed… it wasn’t entirely unwelcome.

“You gonna be okay here alone?” she pulled away to ask.

“Not sure. It’s been so _busy._ “

“Alright, smartass.”

She turned still smiling and left the room, and maybe he’d have to thank Emerald one day. Staying with the Mountain Glenn survivors had definitely proven to have some perks.

 

* * *

 

Boiled rice in a school lunch tray. Life after zombies was nothing if not glamorous.

Ruby ate hers in the cafeteria, a moment alone to – in all honesty – cry again in privacy. Of course her friends would understand and comfort her if she went to them, but everyone was dealing with their own grief. It felt unfair to turn to Weiss and Blake who’d found him, more so to talk to Nora and Ren, entirely beside themselves. Even Yang seemed distant since the mall. The last thing she wanted was to add to their sadness, and so the more tears she could get out where no-one could see, the better.

That was why she was so appreciative of Emerald’s company; it was a relief to have someone who _didn’t_ know the people they’d lost well enough to grieve. She didn't need to feel guilty talking to Emerald. Even when she didn't reply, for Ruby be able to get the words out at all was enough.

She knocked twice on the door to no response and slipped inside, smile back on her face in an instant as she approached Emerald fast asleep once more.

“Food’s here. Sorry it took so long.”

With a thump she sat beside her on the ground, placed the tray down and shook her shoulder gently. One touch made her recoil – feverishly warm, slick with sweat. Emerald murmured something intelligible, red eyes flickering open in a slow daze.

“Holy crap, you’re hot. Warm,” Ruby corrected herself quickly, “Temperature. Em, are you okay?”

“Been better.” Emerald pulled herself up, back against the wall and groaned weakly. Then she saw the bandage, a spot of dirty red, blood still staining from the wound days before.

Her stomach dropped. “Let me look at that.”

Even if she wanted to, it didn’t seem like Emerald would be able to protest. Carefully she unravelled the cloth and saw exactly what she’d feared; skin bright and angry where the glass had cut, heat so potent she could feel it in the air.

Emerald stared, then exhaled a quiet, “Oh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, I'm sorry this is so much more grim than it looked as a plan. I promise there are more happy moments coming up! And worse moments. But we won't talk about those.


	12. Sisters

No matter what their precautions, without real, sterile equipment, even the smallest injury risked infection. Emerald’s was not small. The glass pierced deep, slid down her arm two or three inches long, and hours had passed before it received any treatment.

“She’s red-hot.” Yang spoke to herself more than to Ruby, hand pressed firm against Emerald’s forehead. Ruby hovered over her shoulder and watched, fidgeting from foot to foot.

“She seemed fine earlier. I think. I guess she was warm… oh, man.”

Now her dark skin was pallor and she lay above the sheets, awake but unfocused on their conversation. What had they done when Qrow’s wound festered? Kept it dry, kept it clean, kept it wrapped. That much they could repeat now – carefully Yang wiped the blood and pus from around neat stitches and tied it up, wincing herself with every gasp Emerald gave. What didn’t they have? Antibiotics.

That was kind of the important part.

“What the _fuck_?”

She hadn’t seen much emotion in Mercury past smug satisfaction, so when he stormed into the room, Blake hurrying in behind him, nobody seemed to know what to say.

“She was okay. What the fuck happened?”

“Infection can set in _months_ after the injury occurs,” Blake said. “It can also go away on its own.”

“Calm down, idiot. I’m not dead,” came Emerald’s drowsy mumble. Mercury glared at her but did, slumped into the space beside her.

It was a helpless feeling. Realistically, it didn’t matter that her dad and uncle were away - they wouldn’t be able to do any more than she had without the proper medicine – but she wished they were there just to give some assurance they were doing everything they could. Weiss returned with the news that Ozpin was still in town overseeing Coco and her friends clearing a path through the roads, and then it really _did_ feel like they were alone.

Yang gnawed her lip, drummed her fingers on her knee. “I don’t know what else to do.”

There was a permanent scowl on Mercury’s face, now, and he directed it at her, brow furrowed. “You said you had Aspirin.”

“No, I said I took-“ Yang paused. A sweeping look around the room and she took a deep breath, started again. “I said we had it at Mountain Glenn. I’ll see if Ren and Nora picked any up.”

“Water,” Ruby said, abrupt. “I’ll boil more water.” _Keep her hydrated._ That was the other thing they could do. “Em, try not to move around too much. You’ll be okay looking after her, right?”

“Obviously,” Mercury all-but snapped. There was something unnerving about his mood, but she understood – she was worried, too.

 

* * *

 

 

Ozpin made his brief appearance and said much the same as everyone else; Emerald had an infection, nothing to do but keep it clean, not enough supplies, etcetera, etcetera. Not like he expected much from the illusive man. Maybe he’d hoped for a secret stash, but then why would he break it out for a girl he hardly knew? Even before the end of the world, he’d known not to rely on the kindness of strangers.

It was stupid. They’d only known each other a year, but he’d never thought the word _friend_ about anybody else. Something about Emerald just clicked with him in a way nobody else had ever managed to. Maybe it was because she didn’t put up with his shit. Maybe it was because she knew exactly how to dodge every issue he never wanted to talk about.

Mostly it was because she was a bitch.

Not that you could tell looking at her now. Fragility didn’t suit her. Her bangs were plastered to her forehead, and every time she closed her eyes her expression dropped to something pained and unguarded.

“This fucking sucks,” she grumbled.

Mercury snorted. At the very least, she was still lucid.

“Can’t believe you got taken out by a piece of glass.”

“Not dead yet.”

It was the ‘yet’ that played on his mind. Imagining life without Emerald now was impossible. If anything happened to her because those idiots couldn’t keep her wound clean…

He stayed up with her most the night, and she slept in short respites no more than an hour at a time. Asleep or awake her movements were fretful, uncomfortable, fever radiating heat he could feel even with the distance he kept. That alone was enough to keep him awake, never mind the worry.

In the morning, she looked much worse for the hours she hadn’t managed.

“I can take over,” Ruby said. She was the first to check in, bright and early at the break of dawn. He’d been drifting, and the sound of her voice made his head snap back fast enough to force a wince from him.

He looked to Emerald as if for permission, though she was barely awake herself, blinking blearily at the offensive morning light that poured through the wall of window. There was a pathetic attempt at a smile strained across her lips when she found Ruby, and he figured that was as much of an ‘okay’ as he was going to get from her.

Out their shared room he realised he didn’t really have anything to do _but_ sit around with Emerald, but it was a thought cut short when hurried footsteps sped towards him. Fresh out of bed herself, hair tangled to prove it, Yang touched his back, small smile on her lips.

“How’s she doing?” she asked.

“How d’you think?”

The smile faded quick – she nodded quicker. Stupid question. There was a quiet hesitance in the way she took back her hand, and it hung in the air between them.

It wasn’t Yang’s fault. She wasn’t even there when it happened. Honestly, _he_ was more to blame than anything for not being careful with that damn alarm, but it wasn’t like he could take it out on himself.

He carried on walking; after a pause, Yang followed.

“I just wanted to say our room’s empty. If you want to take a break, no-one’s gonna mind.”

“Why would I need that?”

“Are you serious? Did you sleep at all last night?”

He didn’t bother to respond; there was something weird about her concern that made him far more uncomfortable than it should have. Her company might have been his favourite, but that was because it was purely distraction - the last thing he thought either of them wanted was to talk about _reality._

“Look,” she said, taking his arm. “I’m sorry. If it was Ruby-“

“Em’s not my sister.”

The look on her face was doubtful.

“Just ‘cause we fucked doesn’t mean I want you hanging around. Shit.”

Now there was a flicker of hurt, swallowed whole by a wave of anger that made her release him like his skin was electric. “Fuck you, asshole. I was trying to help. Sleep in the hallway for all I care.”

Maybe later he’d regret it, but for now he was happy to see that anger carry her away. Lashing out could be cathartic - that was something else he’d learned a long time ago.

 

* * *

 

 

They took it in turns, her and Mercury, to watch over Emerald as she lay confined to her bed, not any worse, but not getting better, either. The half a pack of Aspirin Yang found didn’t go far if it did anything at all; the wound remained a sickly red, so obviously painful.

“Need any more water?”

That was the extent of what they could provide for her as they waited for those who’d left to return, hopefully with good news. Even Ruby’s optimism suffered, though. It wasn’t like anything good had happened in- well. A very long time.

She missed Penny. Penny would have found something good about their situation. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost hear the words in her voice. _Don’t worry, Ruby! At least Emerald’s getting lots of rest. I’m sure something will come along soon._ And Jaune? He’d probably have taken his team to find the medicine himself.

They couldn’t spare any more people.

“I’m fine,” Emerald murmured.

It wasn’t just Emerald. Almost a week had passed since her dad left; together, the worry was consuming her whole. Losing her mom was already too much, but at least she’d known what happened then (far too well, far too personally). What if her dad never returned? What if they just kept waiting? She couldn’t stand it.

Mercury took over and she left to walk the halls, to find something to keep her mind occupied. That took her to the fourth floor where they’d sat watch before, currently unmanned with their dwindling numbers, or so she thought, but a mass of blonde cast shadows where she sat in front of the window. For a moment she thought she hadn’t heard her, but before she could sneak away Yang said, “Hey, Rubes,” without even turning.

So she joined her on the desk.

It felt a long time since they’d been alone together. The days after her amputation didn’t count – Yang had been asleep for much of it, quiet and distant for the rest. Even sat in silence, words couldn’t describe how much she’d missed them, and without thought her head lolled to her sister’s shoulder, a gentle sigh escaping alongside the movement.

Yang’s cheek rested against her hair, and quietly she asked, “You feeling okay?”

That was all it took. The tears slipped out unbidden and Ruby held her breath to contain the whimper in her throat but her shoulders shook, and Yang knew, and she sat upright again and turned to face her, concern knotting her eyebrows high on her forehead.

“I’m fine!” Ruby said and sniffled loudly. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine,” Yang said, a sad statement more than an accusation, and that only made it worse; she sobbed into her hands and felt herself tugged into Yang’s warm chest where she let go, clinging tight to her vest as the shudders wracked through her. “Talk to me, Rubes.”

“Everything’s gone wrong. Amber, Tukson, Caer, Penny, Jaune- now Emerald and dad and Pyrrha-“

“Hey. We don’t know how it’s going to work out.”

“Em’s not getting better.”

“But she’s still alive.”

Another sob and she nodded quickly, grip tightening even further. Yang didn’t complain.

“Uncle Qrow always says bad things happen, and there’s nothing you can do about it. He’s right.” Her heart sank, throat tight. “Ruby, we couldn’t do anything to stop what happened to our friends. But this is just like leaving Patch. Remember how it felt like nothing could ever be good again?”

She nodded more and Yang leaned back, rubbed her thumb over her cheek to wipe the tears where they fell and looked her straight in the eyes. “They were though, weren’t they? We’re gonna fix this place up like we did Mountain Glenn, and Em’s going to get better, and dad’s going to come home.”

“What if that doesn’t happen?”

“Then something else will. I don’t know. I hate it too,” she confessed, “I hate feeling so helpless _all the time._ But mom always said there was good in everything. That’s a nicer thing to believe, right?”

“We met Weiss and Blake straight after Patch.”

“Exactly! See?” Yang smiled warmly, and a flicker of it mirrored on Ruby’s lips, too. “It’s not all going to be good, and it’s not all going to be bad. We’re gonna get both. Okay?”

Ruby nodded, “Okay,” because Yang was right. Something good had to be coming. They were long overdue.

A quiet rumble of tires over gravel travelled up through the otherwise silent town and dragged her attention back to the window, to two pristine trucks in the distance moving slow through the freshly cleared road.

_Don’t get your hopes up._

They sped down the fire escape and to the school gates fast as they could, hesitant by the bars as the trucks rolled in. _Don’t get your hopes up, don’t get your hopes up._ The first truck came to a stop. Out the door came a woman, tall, white haired, and strangely familiar.

She stood firm and proper and regarded them both, eyes lingering on Yang’s missing arm. “I presume you are Ruby and Yang?”

Ruby’s heart thudded. She gave a quick nod.

“I am Winter Schnee, from Atlas. My team and I have been sent to offer assistance in the wake of Mountain Glenn’s unfortunate demise. Behind us-“

“ _Girls._ ”

Heavy footsteps approached rapidly and before she could even make sense of the sudden turn of events she was lifted off her feet, squished against another warm chest. The rest of the missing team stepped out from the vehicle behind.

“Guess what?” her dad asked. Yang was pulled in too and he kneeled down to hold them both, grin wide enough to reach his ears as he said, “We got lucky.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a cold so forgive me if there's any glaring errors eesh. Anyway - happiness really is overdue, right?
> 
> I start a new job this week! Hopefully it won't effect how long updates take to come out, but May is a busy month for me anyway, so if there are a few delays I apologise in advance. Don't worry though, they're still coming!


	13. Lucky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! The new job is taking up a lot of time but will only last a few more weeks (seasonal and stuff). Until I finish you can probably expect a chapter every two weeks instead of one!

A woman dressed in white checked her over. It was all so familiar.

In her delirium, just for a moment, she was back at WTCH Labs on a hard metal bed, Watts poking and prodding and moving and turning parts of her as he assessed her for – what? Whatever Salem wanted them for. And she knew what Salem wanted them for, deep down. She always had. It was enough to make her struggle, but a second pair of hands held her shoulders and exhaustion won out; Emerald’s eyes slipped closed and she fell into unconsciousness.

_A low groan carried through to her bedroom and she whimpered like a child, held her hands over her eyes. She didn’t know. She hadn’t realised. It was all her fault. Beneath her feet the floorboards creaked –_

Cold fingers touched the searing heat of her arm and tore her painfully from her dreams, spreading wet over stitches embossed on her skin. A few snips and they were gone. Emerald caught the eyes of the woman in white. Cool cream replaced it, a soothing relief, but then she said, “this will hurt,” and for the second time she felt the pain of needle and thread piercing tender flesh and shrieked aloud.

_She held the handle –_

The strangers stood apart from her speaking low to figures she recognised through her haze of fatigue.

“- should heal fine. We’ve done everything we can, for now. We’ll know in a week –“

Until she heard it said she hadn’t even realised she'd been worried, but now relief surged through Emerald, cleared her thoughts, made her exhale shakily as she lay on her back and closed her eyes, listening.

 

* * *

  

“ _Winter!_ ”

The pitch of her voice was so high, so delighted, that for a moment Weiss could have been Ruby. Excitement carried her into the classroom arms outstretched, but she came to a skidding stop before her older sister, fingers tense with hesitance. Winter made the decision for her, leant down and wrapped her in a tight hug.

Yang hadn’t met Winter, but before she even spoke genetics had given her away; same hair, same irritable expression, same pale, slight frame. Seeing the joy that lit both perpetually serious faces only heightened those similarities, and it was a bittersweet happiness, because _god,_ Yang couldn’t imagine being so far away from her sister for so long, and they all knew the reunion wouldn’t last.

“I can’t believe you’re here!”

“It seems Branwen was right about the urgency of your situation. I apologise for how long-“

“Uncle Qrow?” Ruby interrupted, just as Yang said, “Where is he?”

“Travelling alone.” The look on her face was one of displeasure, nose wrinkled distastefully. Yang might have been offended, but her uncle had always been an acquired taste. “He ‘asked’ for us to move ahead, though what business he could have in this wasteland…”

“But he was with you the whole time before?” Yang asked. “Why didn’t you come sooner?”

Weiss scowled at Yang and released her sister, arms folded across her inflated chest. Maybe her tone had been a little confrontational, but she couldn’t help but think of the things that had happened without Atlas’s help. Winter was patient. She patted Weiss’s shoulder, took a look at Emerald in her bed, and sighed.

“Atlas was formed to stop the virus from spreading,” she said, simply. “There is little point in hiding that now. We achieved a breakthrough - a girl with an immunity. We needed everything we had to test and find what it was that stopped her from turning.”

Beside her, Ruby swallowed. 

“Penny never returned to Atlas, but we believed her samples might have been enough. As you have probably guessed, they were not. Only once that had been determined could we offer the help you needed. You must understand the importance of our work, and why it took priority.”

Yang closed her mouth, let the fact that Penny had been _immune_ and still died sink in, and allowed her silence speak for itself.

“So, is it… is there any chance, now?” Ruby asked, quietly.

“Perhaps, if we were to find somebody else. It is impossible to guess how many others there are, if there are any at all; few escape with just one bite. The General and yourself,” she said, gesturing to Yang, “are a lucky minority.”

Of course she had more questions, but then Blake arrived. Weiss’s attention turned to an issue of a much smaller scale and she snapped from indignant to timid almost comically, mumbled for her girlfriend and sister to follow her outside (so Yang and Ruby wouldn’t laugh at the awkward introduction, no doubt) and lead them away.

“You knew,” Yang said, once she and Ruby were alone.

“Penny begged me not to tell anyone. I saw her bite – I just promised her, okay? You know I can’t break a promise.”

That Ruby had managed to keep it a secret was impressive. Yang nodded, tossed her arm over Ruby’s shoulder to give her a quick, reassuring squeeze. “I get it,” she said. “Damn. How could she have that much on her shoulders and still be so – Penny?”

“She was just happy to help… she’d be so upset if she knew it was all for nothing.”

“Hey, look - dad’s back, we’ve got enough food and meds to last us, what, a few months? _And_ Em’s sticking around. Gotta take those little victories, right?”

“Right,” Ruby sighed. 

Just like her uncle, Yang didn’t have much faith in a cure or vaccine after the virus had already spread so far, but Ruby did; she could see the devastation on her face, though she didn’t want to talk about it, brushed her off and said she’d look after Emerald if Yang wanted to get some fresh air.

If Ruby wanted to be alone, that was fine. Yang would make her talk later if the mood didn’t clear.

She closed the door quietly behind her. When she looked up she was greeted with the sight of a too-close Mercury, arm still outstretched towards the handle.

Yang hadn’t spoken to Mercury since his rude dismissal, though honestly, she’d stopped being angry about it the moment she’d had a second to think. He snapped, he was an asshole, whatever – it was a stressful situation, his best friend sick without help, and she wouldn’t hold it against him for too long.

“Sup?”

“That’s a weird way to say sorry.”

Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be an asshole back about it, of course. She crossed the hall to her room and heard his footsteps follow.

“Why am I saying sorry?”

“You’re not. That’s the point,” came her quick retort. “You were being a dick.”

“I _am_ a dick.”

At least he was self-aware. He crossed his arms over his chest, leant carefully casual against the old display of children’s sketched immune systems that lined her room’s wall. The cliché of him forced a smirk to tug at her lips, and it didn’t move unnoticed – any tension he’d held from the discomfort of their confrontation melted away.

That ‘mystery’ that had so attracted her to him in the first place turned out to be nothing more than regular old social awkwardness, and somehow, it was endearing. 

Yang approached, placed her hand on her hip and looked up at him expectantly. “That’s not ‘sorry’,” she said, and he replaced her hand with his own, held her hips and tugged her towards him. She should have insisted, but she’d never really expected an apology in the first place, and in the end it was nothing – trivial.

That’s what she thought now, at least, as he leant down to kiss her.

As always she was quickly swept up in making out with the man whose surname she hadn’t even asked, whose life she didn’t know, whose key similarity with her was a missing limb, because he was the good kind of distracting, and because maybe, deep down, his attention made her giddy. Sometimes.

Unfortunately, that distracting attention made it very difficult to think of anything outside his mouth and hands. When she heard his voice, it was already too late.

“Did you want- _dammit, Yang_.”

Her dad recoiled and turned back immediately – a good thing, because it gave Yang a chance to take her hand out of Mercury’s pants before he noticed (at least, she hoped). They parted so fast she tripped over her own feet and had to catch herself on his shoulder, and in a voice far more cheery than she felt, she said, “Hey dad!” with something that was supposed to be a grin, but felt more like a grimace. “We were just-“

“We’re making food. To celebrate,” he interrupted, pointedly looking out into the hall, “if you and… Mercury want to join us.”

“Mhm! Yep. Just – we’ll be right down.”

“Great.”

“Awesome! See you in a bit. Five minutes?”

“Right. Okay. _Really,_ where anyone can-”

“Dad.” Her tone was warning, and he got the hint. She hadn’t heard Mercury laugh properly before, but when her dad rushed out of sight he did so hard tears formed in his eyes and despite the _mortification_ the sound had it rise up through her too, a groan turned giggle as she covered her face and tried not to think about the conversation she’d be forced into later.

“Your face,” he gasped out. Yang punched his shoulder.

“This is your fault,” she said, failing to steady her features. “You started it.”

“I was giving you your ‘sorry’.”

“You can’t be alone with him. Ever.”

“Aww. Not even to tell him what I did to you up on the fourth floor last week?”

“Merc, do _not._ ”

He snorted another laugh. “ _Relax_ ,” he said, hand held up between them defensively. “I’m not eating. I’m gonna bother Em.”

So she went to dinner alone, kept her eyes on their salvage, and told herself it was always going to come out sooner or later - but with her dad’s conflicted gaze burning holes in her head, she really wished it could have been later.

 

* * *

 

“We have to tell them.”

To his surprise, Emerald sat waiting for him, more alert than he’d seen her all week. His brow furrowed and he sat on the desk, somehow already knowing exactly what she meant.

“Atlas are trying to cure it. The labs might have the research they need.”

“What, we gonna tell them what we did for Salem, too?”

She pulled her knees up to her chest. Her still-red wound made her grimace, but that might have just been the guilt. “They don’t have to know.”

“They’ve got notes, kept tabs on us an entire year, used our names. They’d find out.”

A few months ago, he wouldn’t have protested. What did it matter to him if Emerald revealed they were killers and ambushers? His urgency to keep it quiet shocked him, because only then did he realise how much he’d come to enjoy his new home and the company they kept. Yang had forgiven him for brushing her off before. He doubted she’d be so understanding when it came to their past crimes.

That bothered him more than he’d expected.

 

* * *

  

Even in the dead of night, Qrow had no trouble finding her. Tall, dark, hair like a bird’s nest and bright, dangerous eyes that stared into him across the field; though he’d come at her request, seeing her there for real almost made him groan. Meetings with his sister were always a pain.

“Raven,” he greeted.

“Little brother,” she said.

“You wanted to show me something?”

Straight to the point. Anything else was sure to start an argument, and he was getting too old for it. Raven scoffed as though he’d tried to start a fight anyway, rolled her eyes and turned her back on him, and walked ahead.

From the hill they’d met upon, he noticed immediately; smouldering embers of a fire extinguished perhaps a day before, plumes of smoke almost invisible in the dark purple sky if not for how they obscured the clouds ahead. A settlement, perhaps, reduced to burning ruins.

“Yours?” he asked.

“No,” she replied. “This isn’t what we do. You know me better than that.”

“I know you took our shit and didn’t think that maybe your daughter might need it more than your stupid ‘tribe’.”

“And here I thought you were calling us ‘bandits’, now.”

“If the boot fits.”

Whatever retort flickered on her tongue she swallowed, here for peace, not bickering, though it was so hard for them to avoid. She took him down the dry grass hillside in silence, stepping over dead corpses – an alarming number of them, like something had attracted them there. A tall gate greeted them as they moved closer, overlooked by an empty watchtower. Behind that, ten or eleven decrepit buildings – no, at least one that looked well maintained beneath the ash that blackened the heavy metal door. His brow furrowed.

“This to make up for Mountain Glenn?”

“ _That wasn’t us,_ ” she snapped again. “There are passwords on the door. Reinforced. That might have something worthwhile behind it.”

“And you want a share?”

“No.”

She looked as though she might say more, but then from the flames something emerged, something manic and burning and sprinting towards them through the open gate. It snarled like a wild animal, and Qrow didn’t have time to figure out what it was before it fell, two shots before it went down, frenzied till its last- breath?

“What the hell was that?” Qrow asked.

 "Zombie.”

It lay still twitching on the ground and Qrow knelt down beside it to verify. Human, definitely, skin burned but rotten where the fire had missed, long dead before the bullets entered its skull. Zombies didn’t run like that.

He stared at Raven as she holstered her gun, hardly sparing him a glance when she spoke. “I thought you might be interested.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look Qrow's still doing stuff. Also, special infected.


	14. On the Road

Dark shadows flitted across the hallway walls where the trees outside halted the sun’s pleasant rays. Other than their voices and footsteps it was quiet; most of their group had migrated outside to enjoy the heat while they could, but Ruby and Emerald walked the school instead, quiet and peaceful in a way little had been for months. Years.

“It’s gonna be so hot this year,” Ruby said. Emerald looked down at her. Something was on her mind, but she kept it secret – she nodded, and glanced out at the sun.

“Hate the heat,” she mumbled.

“You hate everything.”

Emerald looked again, lips pursed in reluctant amusement; Ruby gave a goofy grin in return. It was satisfying to break through the stubbornly miserable exterior she’d adopted since recovering from her infection, and surprisingly easy to do. Determinedly Ruby had studied her, figured out what it was that cheered her up, what topics to avoid, how to make her laugh – she missed the sweet, carefree Emerald who had so eagerly entered their midst, but she was still there beneath the grumpiness. She’d come back.

Their hands brushed together as they walked side by side, but when Ruby tried to meet her eye Emerald averted her gaze doggedly. All that sleepy cuddling and it was almost-handholding that flustered her. She was weird, but Ruby liked her. A lot.

It had taken a few weeks for her to return to normal, but now only a jagged scar remained to remind them of what she had been through. The doctor from Atlas repeated how lucky Emerald had been, told her any longer and it might have gone septic. Luck seemed to be a running theme that spring, and after the long winter, Ruby wasn’t going to question it.

“I like that we’re getting out of here again,” Emerald said.

Uncle Qrow had finally radioed in, one month after his departure from Atlas. He sure liked to keep them worrying, and definitely had a flare for the dramatic – his message was curt, no details past “a two days’ drive northwest between Atlas and Mistral, head for the hills and stay on the radio”. Her dad had been displeased, but it was about time team RWBY got together again, and since they were bringing Emerald and Mercury along for the ride there was little he could complain about. Six plus Qrow would keep them safe without a doubt.

She readjusted her rucksack as they descended the final flight of stairs, straps denting her shoulder from the weight of their supplies now Atlas had finally shared their wealth. If only they had stayed a few more days they might even have been able to hitch a ride in one of their fancy trucks, but their luck hadn’t stretched _that_ far. She didn’t say it, but Ruby was actually excited. It’d be like a road trip with all her best friends.

“ _What is your problem!?_ ”

As they reached the first floor they heard the commotion from a classroom near the exit; Weiss shouting, other voices attempting to be heard over the shrillness of her voice but drowning out easily.

They hurried to the scene.

“Don’t you two _ever_ get tired of touching each other? For god’s sake.”

“Don’t _you_ ever learn to knock?”

Emerald gave a long suffering sigh and flattened her palm against her face as Yang hurriedly dressed, pink-faced and flustered. Ruby couldn’t see him, but she had a pretty good idea that Mercury was doing the same somewhere within.

“I shouldn’t have to knock an empty classroom!”

“It wasn’t empty!”

“Well, I can see that now!”

Even if they were gross, Ruby was happy for Yang. Mercury was even weirder than Emerald, but she liked how cheery her sister always seemed after spending time with him, how often he came up in conversation even when he wasn’t around. Some gossiping with Emerald told her the feeling was mutual, though neither would admit it outright. It was kind of adorable.

Weiss clearly did not agree; Blake seemed torn between laughing and supporting her agitated girlfriend.

“If everyone’s _clothed_ , we should get going,” she decided on; the hand rested on Weiss’s shoulder deflated her somewhat, and she turned her nose up and away from the couple haughtily, made her way outside. “She’s right, though,” Blake admitted when she was gone, lip quirked. “We’re supposed to leave in five. Is it that disappointing?”

“Ruby, cover your ears.”

“Can we just go?” Emerald groaned before Ruby could voice her protest. “I feel like I’m in this stupid relationship.”

Mercury finally emerged, pulling his t-shirt over his head. “You wish.”

They took two cars, and after a brief argument decided to divide into the usual groups: Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang in one, and Mercury and Emerald in the other. They left with more supplies than they often returned with thanks to Atlas’s help, enough to keep them and Qrow sated for a week or two while they did whatever important mission he’d called them out for and then some.

“What do you think it is?” Yang asked, sat beside her in the backseat.

Ruby hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe there’s lots to salvage? Another mall no-one’s touched or something?”

“Perhaps it’s a hospital,” Weiss suggested. “Winter might have given us enough to last through summer, but we will need to think ahead for when it inevitably runs out.”

“Then why the secrecy?” Blake asked, hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Of course none of them had an answer, but as much of a hit as her optimism had taken over the past few months, Ruby couldn’t picture anything that would be cause for concern. Their lucky streak hadn’t lasted long enough to be broken yet.

It was warm in the car. Yang hung her arm out the window to feel the sun on her skin; Ruby and Weiss ducked low to avoid the offensive rays. Even as the sun sank through wispy pink-tinged clouds the heat continued, amplified through the glass – she’d been right about the hot year ahead, only wished she could experience it outside their sweaty metal prison instead.

At least at night they could park and sleep out under the stars, where Yang flopped down spread-eagled in the grass. They’d camped out in the forest surrounding their home all the time as kids; even without their mom and dad, it still felt a lot like home. She took the first watch as her friends drifted off around her, Weiss curled tightly around Blake’s back, Yang and Mercury close (but not touching), and Emerald by her side awake last until sleep finally dragged her down. Then Ruby was left alone, sat listening to the quiet rustle of bushes in the moonlight, happy.

 

* * *

 

“What do you think this is?”

Feet on the dash Mercury rolled his head, stared at Emerald in silence. He’d had last watch; now he just wanted a nap in the car. Emerald was _thinking_ again though, stressing out over nothing. “No idea,” he said. He hadn’t given it much thought himself.

Dissatisfied, Emerald huffed. Her fingers tensed around the steering wheel and he knew where her mind was – northwest, their destination, where the labs stood. If Qrow had found that, however, he wouldn’t have had the chance to radio in, because from the outside it was nothing unusual, and on the inside… well, Salem wasn’t kind to intruders. No desperate scavenger had ever made it back outside the walls while he’d been there.

The car jolted uneasily on the bumpy road they followed Yang’s over, and sleep went out the window. Instead he watched the scenery lazily, trees denser around them the further they travelled until the sun was just speckles of light like glitter across the grass.

Then came the first bang.

Yang’s car swerved wildly and Emerald slammed on the breaks, seatbelts snapping noisily with the suddenness of it.

A second bang and he realised what it was; bullets in their tires. An ambush. He would know.

No sooner did he connect the dots than the sound of shouting reached them, scattered _drop your weapons_ and _get out the car._ Emerald’s eyes met his. Through the glass he saw the ambushers reach into the car ahead and drag Yang out from the driver’s seat by her hair, saw Blake struggle in a larger woman’s grasp and Ruby and Weiss emerge from the backseat, hands in the air. He and Emerald stepped out calmly, led slowly forwards by the strangers, but that calm hitched when they came face to face with the other team and their guns trained on Yang’s and Blake’s backs.

“Holy shit,” one said from the open trunk. “Get a load of all this. Where the hell’d you guys come from?”

When they remained stubbornly silent, one gun raised to Yang’s temple. “He asked a question, armless. Aren’t you gonna answer?”

Mercury tried to concoct a plan, but that was never his strong suit. Shooting first and thinking second. That was what he was good at.

They hadn’t searched him. He could reach his gun. Just not faster than a bullet.

“Mountain Glenn,” Blake said, voice dry.

“Nope,” the guy behind the car said. One, two, three, four, five he could see, but they had the upper-hand. “That shit was empty. No way are you packing this much from there. Try again.”

He gestured and the woman lifted her gun, bringing it down hard and- not fast enough. Blake elbowed her in the stomach and turned and took her to the ground in an instant, just as Yang slammed her palm up into her man’s wrist, bullet going wide and missing her by a hair.

Chaos ensued. He fired into the man raising his gun to Yang and watched as the blood splattered over her face, as he fell with a heavy thud, and heard more noisy shots skimming his ear and ducked, shielded his head and saw Emerald take aim. Bang, bang, bang and only one remained, cowered behind their car and then darted out into the treeline. Bang, bang, bang and they didn’t hear him hit the floor, but none rushed to follow – the forest would make it too easy for him to hide and take them out, one by one.

Weiss flung herself into Blake and dragged her down for a kiss.

“That was close.” Ruby spoke quietly, eyes on the bodies, just as disturbed by the sight of them as before. She said something else to Emerald, but he was too distracted to hear it because Yang rushed over to him and held his head, twisting it to the side as she checked for damage, eyes wide.

“That nearly hit you.”

Before he realised it he was wiping the blood from her cheek and she was leaning into his hand and sighing heavily, arm wrapping around his back for a tight hug he briefly returned. It felt more intimate than the sex, much more awkward for someone to see, but the others were too busy with their own private conversations, and he knew their moment had passed by unnoticed.

The cars were out and they had to walk the remainder of their journey, to Qrow’s frustration.

“What did they look like?”

“I don’t know. Two girls, three guys? One got away, over.” Ruby held the radio to her mouth, taking big awkward steps over the uneven road.

A lengthy pause and Qrow’s voice carried back, crackled and fuzzy. “Keep to the road. I’ll meet you half way. Stay safe, kid.”

They shoved everything they could into their rucksacks and embarked on their trek, heat mild enough to be unproblematic, but he knew before long his leg would start playing up, and didn’t look forwards to knowing they were only taking breaks for him. Already it was late, however, and their luck held out; alone in a field an old farmhouse stood, and they took it as a sign to stop for the night.

 

* * *

 

It was bigger than the other places they’d stayed on the road, just as wrecked and dusty on the inside like an entire family had left in a hurry, broken plates and clothes scattered across the creaking floorboards. Ruby always thought about things like that when they entered a strangers house, what their last minutes there had been. This one seemed panicked, but with a happy ending; there was no blood, no zombies locked in the bathroom, no bullet holes in the wall. This family had escaped and gone on to live at least another day. That seemed promising.

As always she took the first watch, and as always Emerald joined her to keep her company as the others filtered out for an ‘early night’. She knew what _that_ meant, but wouldn’t complain after how close they’d come to disaster. Besides, she enjoyed being alone with Emerald. She always seemed more herself that way.

Sat on the porch with pilfered blankets, Ruby turned to her. “They were the same ones from before. The same group.”

Emerald didn’t need to ask her to clarify. She already knew she referred to the people they’d killed in the woods on the way to Beacon, who’d lead the zombies to Mountain Glenn, and she nodded her agreement, then leant back on her hands and looked up at the stars. “Assholes.”

Ruby didn’t look at the stars. The messy scar that split the otherwise perfect skin of Emerald’s shoulder grabbed her attention instead, dark and violent. To her embarrassment Emerald noticed, brow quirking as she met her eyes.

“It’s so ugly,” she said. It wasn’t self-depreciating, but she spoke like it was fact.

“Nope,” Ruby said, just as certain. “It looks cool. I love scars. Yang’s got some really awesome ones, but all I have is this little crappy one on my knee.” She rolled up her jeans to show, though it really wasn’t anything impressive, a little white dent in her flesh from where she’d stumbled in playground gravel years and years ago.

Emerald hardly looked at it. “Why are you so nice to me?” she asked instead.

“Uh, ‘cause we’re friends, duh. Plus, I’m telling the truth! It looks badass.”

The smile that spread over her lips was soft and hesitant with a little bit of disbelief, and Ruby didn’t get why Emerald was always doubting her intentions, but she was determined to prove she was genuine, even if just to make Emerald as comfortable around her as she was around Emerald.

Even in silence time passed quickly, and soon Weiss and Blake emerged to take the second watch. Without a word they decided to share a room despite the options available to them, Emerald climbing into bed behind her, back to back.

The heat of her skin kept Ruby awake a long time.

 

* * *

 

She let out a shaky gasp, clasped her hand over her mouth, and laughed.

No matter how often she flipped all that hair over her shoulder it still curtained around them in thick blonde waves every time she leant down to kiss him, pretty but pointlessly in the way, tickling the fingers that raked down her back as he thrust into her one final time, groan strained in his throat. Yang flopped over his chest and pressed lazy kisses to his shoulder, and he batted the strands from his face, out his mouth.

“You should cut it,” he said abruptly. For a moment Yang seemed confused, pushed herself up and blinked down at him until she saw the problem and tossed it back again.

“You wanna wait till your dick’s out of me before you start suggesting improvements?” she responded, though it seemed in good humour. He sat up as she dismounted him, threw the condom out of sight and flinched as she lay back down beside him on her side, watching him intently. “What, ‘cause it gets in the way, or ‘cause that guy grabbed it in the car?”

He didn’t answer.

“I’m not cutting my hair just ‘cause some asshole used it against me. I like it long. It’s always been long. I wouldn’t be me without it.”

“That’s dumb,” he said. “It’s just hair.”

“My arm was just an arm, but I’m still pissed it’s gone.”

He conceded with another shrug and let her scoot closer till her remaining arm draped over his stomach and her forehead touched his shoulder. The words had left him unplanned, and really, if she wanted to keep it long and get dragged around by zombies and raiders that was her problem. Just a thought. He didn’t want to be without her, after all.

“You like me.”

“What?” he asked.

“Like, more than the sex. You like me.”

He considered it. “You’re alright,” he replied, and Yang laughed again, bright in the dark of the bedroom.

She wasn’t wrong, though. Over the months their arrangement had become a comfortable routine, and when he’d snapped before he couldn’t deny the surprising regret that washed over him soon after, that distant worry that he’d messed it up and wouldn’t have her again. He’d never admit it, but that’s what he liked about Yang – he didn’t have to.

Without another word she turned to face the wall and he pulled her back into his chest, ignored all the hair in his mouth, and fell to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Warm breath tickled her face and drew her from her sleep, and when her eyes opened Emerald’s were just inches away, gently closed and peaceful. Her own breath stilled at their closeness, at the nervousness that blocked her throat and made her gulp. In her half-asleep state all she could focus on was her cute upturned nose, her soft cheeks, her full lips, how near their mouths were, how pretty the shape of them was, and she didn’t notice Emerald wake until it was too late.

But she didn’t turn around or leave, or even move for a moment; the room was silent and still and they were so nearly touching that when they kissed she couldn’t be sure which of them had closed the distance, whether it was her who’d been brave or Emerald, but it was just as sweet as she’d imagined, and if it was as much of a dream as it felt in the strange balance between asleep and awake, she was glad she’d had it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for being patient! <3


	15. The Laboratory

She hadn’t meant to. It was late, or early, and her eyes had woken before her mind, and Ruby was adorable and far too kind - that was how she justified it to herself in the warm morning light, as her heart beat hard at the sight of Ruby's face still close, still dangerously close.

Ruby didn’t know the kind of person she really was.

Carefully Emerald sat up, brushed the bangs from her forehead. She’d been no better than the people who’d ambushed them. Maybe worse, because she’d known how wrong it was, she knew the people she killed were just trying to survive like them, but she’d pushed it to the back of her mind and ignored it, to make it easier. Ruby thought so much of her, and she was so wrong, and Emerald hated it.

But she felt so warm, and her stomach swam with butterflies.

“Morning.”

Her eyes snapped open and Ruby sat up too, nudged their shoulders together, the smile on her face sweet and bashful. It should have made her feel sick. It _did_ make her feel sick, or nervous – one of the two.

“Sorry,” spilled out awkwardly, and Ruby kissed her again.

Maybe it would be okay. Maybe she could make it right somehow and wouldn’t have to feel so damn criminal doing something that should have made her happy, or maybe it was that she _was_ happy that caused the guilt to consume her so thoroughly. Ruby acknowledged her distance from the kiss and pulled back, eyebrows high and concerned – Emerald tried a smile to sate her, at a loss for what to say.

And she didn’t have to. The door whipped open and Ruby sat up straight, shouted “ _Nothing_ ,” before Weiss could even open her mouth, leaving a mutually puzzled silence to hang in the air between them.

Ruby cleared her throat. “Sup?”

“Miraculously, Yang and Mercury are already awake. We’re waiting for you.” She eyed them with suspicion, though Emerald doubted she’d understood the reason for the tension – they’d been so discreet even Emerald hadn’t realised till their lips touched.

Had it been Ruby’s first kiss? She couldn’t have been older than thirteen when the virus spread, so it seemed likely. Emerald finished changing first and stood in the doorway, arms a shaky barrier across her chest between them even as Ruby met her eyes. How was she dealing with it so well when Emerald could hardly hear her thoughts over her heartbeat?

Nothing seemed out of place in front of the others; they talked and walked beside each other as always, joined in with the bickering that bounced back and forth through the friends that had somehow paired off perfectly. From his radio Qrow checked in ceaselessly, but there were no further ambushes that day or the next, when they finally met him in person. Dishevelled, outgrown hair and dirt-stained clothes, stubble more beard since the last time they’d seen him all those months ago in Mountain Glenn. And anxious. It radiated from him and infected them, too.

“It’s big,” he said, trudging on ahead of them, leading the way. “Didn’t want anyone sticking their nose in our channel.”

It was Yang who spoke up, suitably irked with his evasiveness. “Planning on telling us any time soon?”

“Cut the sass, kid.”

But it wasn’t until they settled for the night that he sat them around a dim-burning fire and told them all about the strange burned-out compound and its impenetrable door, the new mutations that sped across the land.

That morning her stomach swam. Now it was sinking, sinking, sinking.

 

* * *

 

“There _is_ a key code…” Weiss said, fingers bumping over numbers.

“And only fourteen thousand different possible combinations,” came Qrow’s curt reply. As Blake approached, he said, “Don’t think about looking for faded keys. I already checked. Thing’s newer than the virus, meaning whatever’s back here’s worth something. Besides, the power’s out. That means we’re not getting in this way.”

Yang banged the heavy door with her fist and heard the firm clank in response, too sturdy for them to take down with force. The place seemed built for secrecy as much as security; the only windows started two then four storeys high, thin strips of protruding concrete that wrapped around its perimeter.   

“We could blow it up?” Yang suggested, only a flicker of an inappropriate grin on her lips.

“You haven’t seen these mutations. Last thing we want is getting the attention of more than we can handle. Damn, you gonna let me speak, or are you all experts now?” He glanced around the girls and Mercury and let the silence settle before continuing. “I’ve been looking around since I radioed. Looks like there’s another entrance on top – a fire exit, so with any luck, that’s gonna be our way in. Problem is getting up there.”

“Yeah… that’s gonna suck for your old knees.”

Sharp finger jabbed in Yang’s direction, Qrow warned, “Thin ice.”

That already exhausted her thoughts on the matter, so as the others discussed plans (ropes, junk piles, parkour) she fell back to Mercury and Emerald stood a few feet behind with a snicker. Maybe it was her uncle’s bristly manner that had silenced them so thoroughly – Weiss and Blake had managed to get used to it, but Mercury and Emerald stood sullen and distant, had done since they’d first seen those tall, imposing gates. She supposed it could be intimidating without knowing he was all hot air. Locking eyes with Mercury she mumbled, “I thought it was funny,” but the twitch of his lip was only cursory.

(He’d been the one to pull her in. He was the one to push their relationship that step further. She had nothing to worry about but the task at hand, but that was far easier thought than done.)

“Maybe only one of us needs to climb,” Ruby said carefully, eyeing its structure. “I could make it, I think! There’s probably a ladder or something at the top, right? Why else would the escape be up there?”

Qrow hoisted her up with little difficulty, though he couldn’t hide the grimace when she pushed off his shoulders. Her fingers gripped the windowsill and her feet scrambled against the barely-there ridges in the wall – she could do it, Yang knew she could, but still her heart thumped in her throat as they hovered below Ruby, prepared for missteps.

The jut of the concrete was enough for her feet to lay flat, but that was all. A shaky breath of laughter and Ruby yelled down, “Wow, this is higher than I thought.” Then, without further delay, she sprung fearlessly up and up faster than even Yang had expected, so fast she hardly seemed to touch the narrow grooves at all before she was pulling herself up and over onto the roof and out of sight.

And then she shrieked.

In the second between that noise and the gunshot Yang found herself at the wall uselessly, saw Emerald sprint and Blake yell for Qrow to boost her up too, but a high pitched, “I’m fine!” from above dissipated the panic and let Yang breathe again.

“I’m fine,” Ruby repeated. “There’s a ladder. I’m gonna drop it down. Look out!”

The ladder unfolded noisily and crashed onto the ground.

“What do you guys think’s inside?” Yang asked as Weiss took to climbing first, but when she turned and faced Emerald and Mercury she was hit with the distinct feeling of missing something - like they’d been speaking low murmurs behind her back.

A body lay bleeding on the roof – some poor occupant who’d so nearly escaped. Early-thirties, long braided hair, his eyes wide and startling even in death, probably bitten before he made it to the top.

The fire door opened with little force, and inside was a dark, long staircase into nothingness.

They descended.

 

* * *

 

He knew the endless corridors; he didn’t need to wait for his eyes to adjust, to trail his hand across the walls like the others to navigate in the dark. For one whole year the place had been their prison and home. What had happened to put it in such a state?

Tyrian hadn’t made it, but perhaps the others had. Not that he cared for their lives – he just wanted to know which of them were still inside, ready to attack. If one of Salem’s own creations had turned her. God, he hoped they’d got Watts; at least seeing his stupid rotting body would make up for some of what was sure to come.

“Wish phones were still a thing,” Yang said, closer than he’d expected her to be. “Or, y’know, flashlights. I can’t see anything.”

Her shoulder was touching his.

Qrow opened doors as they passed and filled the hallway with harsh summer light pouring through the cold bare glass, that illuminated two unmade beds and the clothes left strewn around one room in greys and greens, blacks and browns, the mess of comics which spilled across the floor that Ruby grabbed greedily for.

“Somebody did live here,” Blake commented.

“Someone with quick fingers.” Qrow found a drawer bursting with banknotes, probably thousands of Emerald’s useless loose dollars that spilt out onto the floor when he reached in for the single leather wallet. And he opened it. And his back straightened. Yang cocked an eyebrow and sauntered to his side, peaking around his shoulder at whatever had him so surprised.

Looking back at her, a dark skinned young woman, earthy brown hair cropped short, gentle smile immortalised on the ID card regardless of those guidelines warning her against it. Beneath the image, a familiar, ghostly name. Amber Autumn.

They knew her.

“Uncle Qrow?” Yang asked.

They’d known their final targets, ambushed out on the deserted highway on a cold winter’s afternoon. Memories of spying on Mountain Glenn’s talks in their early days there resurfaced, the missing scout party found dead some way away - only now did he connect those dots and realise how much shit they were in. How stupid he’d been to think they’d found somewhere for now. For as long as they wanted to stay. For good?

Emerald wouldn’t look at him.

Qrow shook himself out his trance, voice gruff and tense. “See if there’s power in the basement. We’re gonna search this place top to bottom.”

And when they reached it finally, when they’d carefully navigated their way down pitch black staircases and corridors, following the walls and door handles until they found themselves in a place with no other exit, when Qrow’s clever fingers found the broken-down generator Mercury hoped against stupid hope was beyond repair but whirred to life with just one click, he realised things could only get worse. Because when the cells lit up and they adjusted to the new white light, all those zombies lay dead in their cages, old and new. Very new.

Long red hair and rotting flesh, gold jewellery glimmering where her cold dead hand reached through the bottom of the bars.

“No,” he heard Ruby croak, tears summoned so easily. Yang had more difficulty – her hand clasped tight around her mouth, firm enough to leave white indentations where her fingers pressed into her cheeks. Holding her breath. He’d forgotten how bad it smelled in the cells.

“Why is she here?” Weiss demanded as if any of them could answer. Then she burst into a fit of sobs that Blake muffled in her shoulder, her own eyes red with anger.

“We should go.”

It was the first time Emerald had spoken since they’d realised where they’d travelled to, but their grief was too much for them to listen. Emerald still thought they had a chance to leave without them finding out, because this looked bad, and if the girls and Qrow turned on them they could escape - they had guns, they knew the way – but even he wouldn’t shoot Yang.

He saw the book before Qrow did, and knew there was no way to get there first. All he could do was watch as the older man’s fury carried him across the room to the otherwise empty desk where it lay incriminatingly, open on its last page.

“ _Subject: 43, five foot eleven inches, direct exposure._ What the fuck.”

The sound of a man’s raised voice still sent tension shooting down his spine.

“ _43: no change. Increase dosage._ Fuck. Fucking shit,” and he flicked through the pages, and Mercury’s hand snaked down to his gun, its grip comforting in his hand. “They’re experimenting on them, turning them into zombies. God fucking dammit.”

He stopped. The heat of his rage cooled dangerously as he read what Mercury already knew was on the page.

“ _Emerald Sustrai. Indirect exposure. Mercury Black. Direct exposure._ ”

Now all eyes moved from Pyrrha to him and Emerald stood closer than he remembered, gravitated to him in her growing dread. He kept his focused on Qrow, and said nothing.

“Is this-“ Yang began. Still he kept his gaze on Qrow as he continued through the pages, now silent. “Is this where you came from?”

“ _Discussion entailed Highway 34 ambush. Unclear whether direct or indirect exposure caused aggression, but subjects seem unfazed and continue to follow directions. Will repeat tests after first dosage._ That’s under your names. S’funny, I’ve been to Highway 34. You wanna know what I found?”

They already knew. There was no turning back. Who cared anyway? Beacon was just another stop, all Mountain Glenn was ever supposed to be.

“Your dead friends,” he told him flatly. “Shot in the back, right?”

Before Qrow could close the distance, before Mercury could pull his gun, Yang was in his face, violet eyes violent. “You killed them? You killed innocent people. You worked for the people who- who did this to-“

“Yeah, we killed them, took their shit. Survival.” No, it wasn’t. If they were anything like the rest of them, Amber and her friends would have given them anything they wanted if they’d just asked nicely. Nobody had ever given him anything he asked for, though, not before Mountain Glenn, so how could he have known?

One handed she shoved him, teeth grit painfully tight as she spat out her next words. “So, what? Did you know? Was this your plan? Steal the rest of our shit? You thought you’d just fuck me and it’d be fine, or was it you trying to get in good with us?” Qrow’s chest puffed up like an angry bird as he took another step forwards but Blake held him back, not out of a desire to defend him but to let Yang finish. No, she wasn’t done yet.

“ _Answer me._ ”

They had to have known what kind of people they’d been when they’d met on two sides of the same gun. Now they knew the victim it was time for them to stop pretending and get righteous, instead? The hypocrisy was staggering.   

“Don’t get so full of yourself, blondie.” The fury in the room was catching, but his came out smug. “We fucked ‘cause you were easy and it passed the-“

He forgot how strong her left arm was until its fist connected with his nose. It crunched, burning hot, trails of blood on his top lip in an instant, and in that moment all he wanted to do was fight back. He felt so much of _something,_ but he was so used to nothing that he couldn’t give it a name. Emerald grabbed him before he could return blows and Ruby rushed to hold back Yang too, and she struggled against her grasp and reached to hit him again.

Whatever had been between them and Beacon was over. That was his only logical thought.

Because the senseless screaming, the insults they hurled around the room, the arguing over who did what, who should stay where, whether he and Emerald would ever make it back to the school with them, summoned a horrific shriek from the floor above that muted the chaos quick as the push of a button. It was rabid like a wild animal’s, and then came the slap of sprinting feet over the corridor tiles, fast towards the cell doors.

 

* * *

 

Qrow hadn’t exaggerated the new mutation’s horror. Like flies the zombies swarmed to the basement and threw themselves into the door, thudding, thudding, thudding against the pressure they pushed back. Ruby once watched a documentary about cute little rodents that people used to think jumped from cliffs. That’s what they reminded her of.

“How many bullets?” she grunted out.

“Eight.”

“Six.”

“Six,” Weiss said. “How did we miss them!?”

“They sleep.” Qrow jolted from the strength of the zombies and pressed back harder. “Keep quiet and they won’t do anything. I found a bunch on the way to get you. They must have been hiding-“

“The generator opened the front door,” Emerald spoke above the din. “It’s broken, whenever the power comes back it unlocks automatically.”

“Shit.”

There was only one way out, and that was straight through.

“We should-“

But the zombies burst in before she could strategize, and then all there was was ringing in her ears as their bullets rang out. She ducked and shielded her head, dodged the groping claws that came towards her and stumbled back into her friends to clear the way; they fell in on bullet-pierced legs as if it were nothing at all, vicious like nothing she’d ever seen before. All there was to do was push back. The shots only summoned more, and the bodies that rolled down to them began to block the way completely. “We’ve got to get through!” Ruby yelled. Waiting any longer wasn’t an option.

When she ran out of bullets she pulled her knife and felt it sink into skull after skull as they ascended the stairs, though more were killed by Qrow who’d shoved his way to the front. Too many times she watched as dead fingers locked around his arm, shoulder, leg, but her friends were too alert to let him suffer a bite – they parted the influx of zombies and reached the top of the stairs together, but still more rushed through the hallway, starving.

It was their turn to sprint dead through the middle of them, goal in sight. More spilt through the crack of light that lit the way to freedom but they were manageable, single file. She was choking on her own heartbeat. How long could they carry on outrunning something that didn’t get tired?

“There!” Emerald shouted, and Ruby didn’t need to see her to know what she was pointing out; one old truck remained abandoned amongst the collection of vehicles. If they could hold off the remainder… everyone would fit.

Mercury ripped open the door and crouched down but Qrow pushed him roughly out the way, got it started himself as they kept the ebb of zombies at bay. Miraculously it hummed to life. A few more minutes and the nightmare would be over.

As Emerald made her way into the back Qrow blocked the way. “The hell makes you think you’re coming back with us?” he asked, and for a moment Ruby couldn’t think.

Emerald could. In her hand she held the dropped notes, jaw set firm. “We know what happened here, and I know Atlas are looking for a cure. We’ll answer any of your questions. Let us make this right.”

“Will he answer?” Qrow twitched his head to Mercury.

“ _Yes,_ ” she cut in before Mercury could, and he scoffed cruelly, rolled his eyes like an indifferent teenager and wiped the blood from his upper lip.

It boiled down to this: Pyrrha was dead. Ruby had already known it, deep down. Emerald and Mercury had lied - that was a surprise. They had killed innocents, their friends, and leaving them behind only made sense, but she remembered the warmth of Emerald’s lips that morning and the tightness of her chest, the waves of giddy joy that enveloped her that now gave way to ones of nausea, and they couldn’t. They couldn’t leave them behind.

“Get in,” Qrow snapped, and slammed the door behind them.

 _Let us make this right._ Ruby didn’t know if that was possible, but right then she didn’t know anything but that her mind was too clouded to make any rational judgements, that Emerald and Mercury had been their friends, that they’d lied to them and Pyrrha was dead and she was tired and she just wanted to be back at Beacon with her dad one week ago where none of this had happened.

As the sprinters faded into the distance the realisation panged: nothing would be the same again.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for waiting and stuff! Hopefully the length makes up for it a bit. I thought writing this chapter would never end. Luckily we're in the second, shorter part of the fic now! Yay!


	16. Moving On

_May 6 th,_

_Subject 43 retrieved east, possibly from the Atlas laboratories. Discovered alone with bite on left ankle estimated to be over one hour old. Appeared delirious and unresponsive but remained unturned for the journey and first dose of 6. Deterioration continued unaffected. Aggressive response. Tests to continue tomorrow._

_W._

_\--_

_May 9 th,_

_Aggression abated. 43 entirely unresponsive to human presence or commands. Movements sluggish. No pain response. Continue tests._

_W._

_\--_

_May 12 th,_

_43 shows signs of hearing and acknowledges human presence non-aggressively (recorded, tape 111). No apparent grasp of language. Results match subjects 30 and 40. Conclude tests._

_W._

_\--_

_May 19 th,_

_Subject 44 volunteered. No previous exposure. Virus injected directly into elbow crook. 6 injected directly into the elbow crook. Deterioration occurred rapidly within thirty minutes with heightened aggression. Monitoring period currently set at seven days. Tests to continue tomorrow._

_W._

_\--_

Ruby closed the cover over pages she could now recite from memory, Pyrrha’s final moments immortalised in a stranger’s neat cursive. That she’d been dead before she’d reached the cells was a small comfort, but just that. It didn’t change that her friend was gone. It didn’t change how they’d violated her corpse.

That year had seen so much death that the pain was dull and familiar. It wasn’t fair. Pyrrha deserved as many tears as the rest of them, but they were all dried out by the time they returned to Beacon, and wouldn’t be summoned no matter how hard she tried.

A tentative knock at the door made her raise her weary head.

“Come in.”

“Hi,” Emerald said. There was an awkwardness to her Ruby had never seen before, eyes downcast, soft hand rubbing slim wrist. Suddenly she knew Emerald had been waiting outside for some time. “We’re leaving now.”

Oh. “Okay.”

It was hard not to reel in the blow of their betrayal. That they’d been the ones to pull the trigger on her friends was almost unbearable to think about, but in equal parts unavoidable. She wanted so badly to believe that it really was what they thought they had to do to survive, but even if that were the case, it didn’t feel like something she could ever forget. Whatever had simmered between her and Emerald was far out of reach.

She wished it wasn’t. She already missed her.

“I’ll… give this to Uncle Qrow.” Just walking with her would do no harm, but it didn’t do any good, either; what was once a contented quiet was now tense and uneasy as they passed through the hallways together, one last time.

Qrow would take them to Atlas. They weren’t as good a source of information as the scientists themselves, but they’d seen the tests and results and conditions they’d occurred under, and were as much as they could hope for. Emerald argued that, at least, and as angry as their group had been at the laboratories they all seemed willing to believe it; nobody wanted to send them out on their own to die, no matter what they pretended.

At the school’s front gates a small crowd had already gathered in the overbearing sun, her dad and uncle talking low with Ozpin while Weiss and Blake stood ready to see their former-friends leave. Mercury stood alone in the gateway itself, arms crossed tight, gaze averted. The bloody bruise on his nose was a stark contrast to his pale skin. She hadn’t heard him speak since his argument with Yang.

“I thought you might want this,” Ruby said as she shoved the book into her uncle’s unexpecting hands. Despite everything, she couldn’t help but feel she was losing two more friends, and her throat was dry and painful.

“Oops. Could come in handy,” he replied, and then it hit her how long it could be until she saw him again, too, and that made her threw her arms around his middle tight. Yang did the same when she arrived, pointedly looking anywhere but Mercury, and when Ruby told them all to be safe she echoed the sentiment.

“Yeah. Make sure you don’t get eaten, Uncle Qrow.”

Ruby couldn’t fault the spite.

But in the early hours of the morning she awoke to Yang tossing and turning on her mattress, sheets a frustrated pile at her feet, fidgeting limbs irritating her till she stood up and hung in the static breeze of the open window, breaths slow and deep.

“They’re going to be fine,” Ruby whispered, just loud enough for her to hear.

Tension straightened her back. Without looking behind, Yang said, “I don’t care,” and lied.

 

* * *

 

“Atlas is a few days north. In that time, I don’t wanna hear a word out of either of you – no talking about how long it’s taking, how hot it is, how you wanna stop and piss, and if you mention my nieces I’ll throw you out on the road and run you down. Got it?”

Mercury scoffed dryly. “Are we ‘allowed’ to answer?”

“You can answer my questions.”

“So kind.”

“That’s strike one, kid,” Qrow said, meeting his eyes in the rear-view mirror. “Two more and I’ll feed you to the next hoard.”

For once he had no energy to argue. His never-ending need to push buttons thrummed dully in the back of his mind, pressuring him to make the old man snap now rather than stew in the discomfort of his silence, but one look at Emerald told him to keep the urge at bay. The last thing he needed was to piss her off more. It would be a long, boring journey without his best friend.

The car jittered over rubble-strewn roads for hours on end and no words passed between them. Just a few days before he and Emerald had been laughing and joking in the front seat, her poking fun at him and Yang, him taunting her over all those sleepy ‘cuddles’ with Ruby like they were all normal, functioning teenagers in a normal, functioning world. More normal than things had ever been before the infection spread.

He’d ruined that. Even if he wanted to, there was nothing he could do to take it back.

In the dark of night they pulled to a stop and slept in the cover of another long abandoned home, small and suburban and well-raided years before, thick dust undisturbed until Qrow pushed open the unlocked door. He had nothing to say to them before he found himself a bed for the night, but whether through kindness or preference he left the double room to them. Paranoia told Mercury he’d be listening, but apathy said it didn’t matter anyway; if he wanted to hear Emerald chew him out, he wouldn’t stop him.

“How long are you gonna be mad at me for?”  

As Emerald stripped she glared at him through the slit of her shirt, modesty long-since lost between them, and said, “Forever.”

The humour was progress, but the statement felt a painful half-truth. His outburst had hurt more than Yang, after all. Without it things might have been very different.

“I don’t get it,” she said. In her spaghetti strap top she sat primly on the bed’s edge, looking at him. “You actually liked her. Don’t roll your eyes! You know it’s true. It was like you realised we’d screwed up, but instead of damage control you decided to tear everything down because, what, it’s easier that way? You don’t have to face up to what you did? You just figured she’d be mad about it forever, so, why not give her something to really be angry about?”

It sucked when she was right. The uncertainty killed him, that anticipation between mistake and punishment. He’d rather burst the balloon himself than suffer the surprise of it later.

“I’m not even angry you’re so damn set on ruining your own life - whatever, your choice. But you didn’t think for one second you were screwing everything up for me, and now we’re both going back in labs, and we’re going to be surrounded by scientists, totally miserable, probably until we both die. Happy with yourself?”

“Sorry,” he said, and shocked her into softening. She heaved a heavy sigh and lay back on the sheets, silent until he took off his boots and dropped down beside her.

“You’re an idiot,” she told him, and it was a fact he couldn’t deny.

They awoke to Qrow’s rapt knocks against the door, his gravelly voice croaking a, “Rise and shine, assholes,” like he’d struggled as much as them to sleep in the rising heat. His mood did little to improve as they drove further north, but he stayed true to his word about not wanting to hear their voices; he didn’t say a word to either of them, and honestly, Mercury preferred it that way.

It wasn’t until they couldn’t ignore the fuel bar’s blink and parked again under the sunset in the wasteland between civilisations that he said, “I’ll take first watch.” When Mercury awoke under the stars on the hard stony ground clutching fistfuls of dirt he was panting like he’d run a marathon, and then Qrow looked at him long and hard, expression frustratingly unreadable, until he spoke for the second time that day.

“Bad dream?”

“None of your fucking business,” he all but spat.

“Two strikes,” Qrow snapped in return.

The nightmares were back. Just another exciting revelation on the world’s shittiest road-trip.

 

* * *

 

He hadn’t known what to expect when he agreed to take the brats to Atlas. When he’d spied on them so many months before he’d only been able to determine that they probably weren’t enough of a risk to warrant constant supervision - a foolish conclusion to come to since they’d killed Amber, Tukson, and Caer in cold blood.

But that was the thing about the end of the world; it wasn’t so black and white. In the years since they’d left Patch he’d killed more than his fair share of humans, some in self-defence, others just in case, and though never for material gain he couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for a couple of kids just doing as they were told to survive. 

Emerald, at least. As far as he was concerned, Mercury could choke.

That’s what he’d thought for the journey so far, and it was nice and easy to hate the little shit who’d hurt his niece. Then he had to go and have that stupid nightmare, his stammered curses and humiliating whimpers painfully audible in the still warmth they lay in, and that had to go and make him think of him as an actual person instead of the villain it was so much easier to paint him as. What he’d done, what he’d said to Yang, was unforgivable, but it would be a long way to Atlas if he carried on pretending they weren’t there.

Mercury stayed awake. He could hear the shifting of fabric as he fidgeted in place.

“Swap,” Qrow said. “Take over. I need sleep.”

There was a low grunted response before Mercury sat up and stared blankly at the nothingness they’d stopped in, only starlight illuminating the endless space and nearby road. In those conditions it was difficult to tell, but Qrow was sure he looked suitably sorry for himself.

“Next town over should be an hour away on foot. Think your leg can handle that?”

Mercury hummed an affirmative.

“I’ve done this route a thousand times - if there’s nothing we can hotwire we’ll siphon ‘em and bring it back. Shouldn’t be too hard. Worst comes to worst a day’s drive’ll turn into a couple more days walk. I’m sure Jimmy can last that long without us.”

“Uh-huh.”

With a shrug to nobody but himself Qrow gave up – he’d given it his best shot, after all – and made himself as comfortable as could be in the warm dust that made him hack a cough that betrayed his age, ready for sleep. He wasn’t sure if he’d managed any at all when he heard the muffled sound of his own name. Its abruptness made him sit up bolt right, heart beating a mile a minute, gut instinct telling him something was wrong, a hoard had found them, raiders had guns to their heads. Mercury looked back at him just as puzzled, however, and Emerald lay still asleep a few feet away, curled in on herself.   

“ _Qrow_ ,” the voice insisted, a static sound from his belt. Mercury realised the same moment he did, though there was no way the voice filled him with as much dread.

“Gimme a sec,” Qrow said. A few feet away he held the radio to his ear and spoke low as he could and still be picked up. “Raven. Not a good time.”

“You were right. They were at Mountain Glenn. Someone is trying to take my position.”

“Great,” Qrow replied. He glanced back at their little camp behind their car, at Mercury pretending not to listen and Emerald stirring. Raven never contacted him just to talk. Why now, in front of two so likely to repeat the message?

“Not great,” Raven told him. “You took out our men, and you were tracked. They’re on their way to Beacon now.”

The man who’d escaped into the woods. “Well, shit.”

“Tell the others you saw-“

“I’m half way to fucking Atlas. How far away?”

“Tomorrow night, or the next. Call them, get them to-“

He switched through the channels to no response. Of course Beacon’s inhabitants were sleeping soundly so late at night, and by the time he got through to someone, how long would they have to run? They were probably already out of range. The radio squeaked under his tightening grip, and he was well aware of the two sets of eyes that bore into the back of his head, Emerald and Mercury more conspicuous than they knew.

“What route are they taking?”

“Mistral,” she answered immediately. “We stay away from the main roads. Keep an eye to the west if you plan to stand and fight.”

“Unlike you.”

He heard the sudden bite to her voice, the one that meant he’d overstepped a boundary. “They’re armed, Qrow, I’m not stupid. If I stood in their way you would have a dead sister and no one to warn you. This is a courtesy.”

There would be a time and place to call her out on the semantics of _courtesy,_ to remind her that the best thing to do might, perhaps, be to contact her own husband, to call her daughter and tell her she was still alive, but for now he had to focus on the problem at hand.

“Is… everything alright?” Emerald asked when he returned. Oh, they’d already heard everything. The drum of his heart hadn’t slowed since waking, and that same anxiety flickered over her face, too.

“Get in the car. Let’s see if we can cut them off.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An alternate title was "everyone feels real sorry for themselves".
> 
> I'm thinking this will be 25 chapters at most? Maybe even less! Anyways thanks for sticking with it and stuff, your comments make trying to tie up all these loose ends worth it <3


	17. Burn Down

Her fist thumped against the mattress, springs screaming back as her knuckles met the cold hard surface behind. They would bruise, but Beacon had yet to offer a better substitute. She always knew her punchbag was an essential, no matter what her dad said.

It was energy that had to be expended. It fizzed within her and pulled at her heart, sometimes angry, sometimes sad, always emotions she couldn’t be bothered to spend time on. Stupidly she’d taken advantage of Mercury’s ability to distract her and had come to rely on it, like his betrayal wasn’t certain from the beginning, from the moment he held a gun to her friends’ heads. Now she ached with feelings she’d ignored for months, feelings he’d only added to, and there was nothing to do but punch and punch and punch until she could sleep again.

“I think it’s had enough,” Blake said from the desk, watching the show. “If you break your hand, you really will be in trouble.”

“I’ll just kick,” Yang replied and then grunted with the impact of another hit, pulled back her arm again for another.

“You know, this isn’t proving you’re okay.”

That one she ignored.

It had been a long time since she’d had a work out of any kind, and soon her arm throbbed with the same pain as her black and blue fist. Still the energy remained, but with any luck it had been sated enough that in a few hours she could lie down, close her eyes, and black out until sunrise (the end of the world hadn’t sucked _all_ the optimism from her).

But Beacon was too quiet with another three departed. Before she’d been such a people-person. The long, dead silences that followed their dwindling numbers only made things worse. A few more days and that heavy absence would fade into normality, but that third night she rolled on her exhausted springs as fretfully as the first.

 

* * *

 

“They can defend themselves. They took out the guys in the woods,” Emerald tried as Mercury fiddled with the radio, car bouncing over potholes so fast she had to hold the roof to stay in her seat. They’d lost precious hours when their first vehicle finally gave in miles and miles away from their destination, and their replacement would only get them to the town’s outskirts - if they were lucky.

“You don’t know how many people Raven has. _Had,_ ” Qrow corrected. “All those pet zombies? Fuck.”

“It’s still white noise,” Mercury said, and dropped the radio in the empty seat. In the rear-view mirror she caught his eye as he tried to catch Qrow’s and already knew the question on the tip of his tongue.

“How the hell do you know their leader, huh? S’kinda hypocritical to be on our asses over a few ambushes when-“

“Shut up.”

He didn’t. “No, you had a lot to say about me and Em, how we’re lowlifes and criminals and what-the-fuck-ever. What about you and the raiders? Your family know?” Taunting again _._ Emerald brought her fist down hard on his thigh and from behind the wheel Qrow inhaled sharply. For a second she thought he’d pull over to chew them out, to _kick_ them out, but though she was sure the idea had occurred to him too, he didn’t. He kept on speeding on.

“Raven’s my sister,” Qrow spoke deceptively calm - she could see the twitch of his brow, the stress lines deepening. “No, they don’t know about her. And when we get there, if we’re lucky and her stupid raider group haven’t killed them all, you’re not gonna tell them. You know why?”

“Why-“

“It’s none of your fucking business!”

“Stop,” Emerald interrupted. “I see smoke,” and then their car ran out of gas. Great clouds of it blocked the moon and far, far in the distance Beacon glowed a dangerous red. They were too late.

Qrow said, “Run,” and they did, feet slamming hard into the hot, noisy tarmac. She didn’t point out the pointlessness of trying, that anyone who survived the raider’s attack would be scattered and fleeing to who-knew-where, that entering the chaos would only lead to disaster they could avoid if only they’d stop and find another car and make their way to Atlas, like they were supposed to.

She didn’t want to. She wanted to know her friends were okay.

 

* * *

 

A bang cut unceremoniously through her dreams and propelled Ruby upright, hand over her heart, startlingly conscious all at once. Darkness obscured her vision, but she could see enough to know her sister still lay beside her; the room was still, and slowly her panic subsided, fading with her steadying heartbeat as she told herself it was nothing, a bump in the night. By the desk a pile of pillows and blankets had been kicked restlessly across the floor, double mattress bare. Strange. It was unlike Weiss and Blake to wander off alone in the middle of the night.

_Bang._

This time she stood and wobbled sleepily to the window as the sound echoed hollowly over the school grounds. Out front she expected to see the dim silhouettes of whoever had taken watch that night taking aiming through the bars, shadow-people in the dark, but a warm orange glow flickered over too many figures that moved frantically across the tarmac. Another bang rang out; one figure fell. Somewhere, Zwei barked. Sparks crackled in the distance and lit her sister’s face.

“Ruby,” Yang said, and her voice shook. “Are the guns in the desk?”

All four were.

“Where’s Weiss and Blake?” Ruby asked, fingers slipping over the shells she loaded.

“They’ll be okay,” Yang told herself, and shoved a second pistol in the back of her pyjama pants.

Shouts filtered through the intermittent sounds of firearms, curses and yelps of pain, flames spreading fast across classrooms empty and occupied. Already smoke hung suffocating and thick in the air. “Raiders!” Ruby banged hard on the doors she knew her friends slept behind. “Everyone out!”

“Do you think they followed-“

But a stranger turned the corner and took aim, opened her mouth to shout, and before she knew what was happening Ruby had fired a bullet into her thigh and Yang into her chest. The buzz of blood in her ears muted whatever gargled words the raider attempted to speak, but Ruby couldn’t bring herself to care anymore. Her friends were screaming, her home burning. Yang nudged her shoulder and they kicked the wounded woman’s gun and fled.

“We can head out back, stay away from the main roads.”

“That’s probably where they came from,” Ruby said, breath hastening. “No-one raised the alarm. Where’s dad?”

“I don’t know! The rota’s all messed up since Merc and Em left.”

They fell out into the playground and ignored the bodies on the floor - if Ruby saw another friend she wouldn’t be able to keep on running, and she knew Yang was the same, both at wits end, so they jumped over them without pause. She didn’t think of Weiss and Blake and the guns they didn’t have, or her dad and Zwei and whether they’d escaped, or Nora and Ren asleep in their beds. She saw the gate and ran.

From the roads they’d cleared weeks ago they looked up at the school, and it lit up the sky so terribly, and she hoped against hope someone else had made it.

 

* * *

 

“Shit!” was all Emerald could splutter when she felt the full force of a sprinter collide with her hip, 180 pounds of unexpected rotten flesh knocking her flying from her feet. It took both hands to keep its desperate snapping jaw at bay, but its expression smoothed blank before she could even try and overpower it. Qrow pried his blade from its head, and when she stood her legs were sore and bloody, deep grazes and gravel embedded in her thighs, only adding to their ache from the urgent sprint.

Between them and the school stretched the winding road, clear but a long way away when Beacon was burning. Her breaths exhaled strained and heavy, and if she was tired then Mercury and Qrow were certainly suffering.

“We can’t keep this up. Not with the sprinters too,” she huffed. Qrow dragged his hand across his face and nodded, to her surprise. She’d almost expected him to run on without them.

“We’ll stay off the main road and make our way through the houses. It’ll keep the sprinters off our backs, even if we run into some of those asshole raiders inside.”

Emerald suspected that that prospect was more than a little appealing to him, but couldn’t fault the logic. She wouldn’t mind seeing the people who’d done this. With the butt of his gun he smashed the glass of the first front door, and unlocked the hatch.

 

* * *

 

They ran through ruined gardens of brown grass and broken swing sets away from the flame’s glare. For the first time in a long time Ruby thought of Yang’s missing arm and how she wished she still had it, because more than anything she needed her sister’s hand to squeeze to help her forget about all they were leaving behind, _again._

Yang leant back against the crooked fence to catch her breath. Without the heavy beat of their footsteps Ruby could still hear the burning, and the shouts, and the bang of guns that had woken her. Her pyjamas were thin and she was shaking, but it wasn’t from the cold. She could hardly process they were outside the gates. Some distant part of her lay still asleep in bed.

They’d been at Beacon such little time.

“We didn’t make an evac plan,” Yang said.

“We have to go to Atlas,” Ruby knew, because there was nothing else left. Patch, Mountain Glenn, and the places in between all lay in ruin.

“No.”

“Uncle Qrow’s there! And I bet that’s where Weiss and Blake are heading. I know you don’t want to see him, but there’s nowhere else. We have to.”

There was little point in arguing, and that acknowledgement came from Yang in a blunt sigh and a roll of her eyes. It would be a long walk, but they’d walked longer, and this time they knew there was something worth the journey at the end. All they needed to do was keep quiet and make it out of town before any of the raiders spotted them.

One horrific screech broke through their silent contemplation and chilled Ruby’s bones; like a switch it tuned out the din of destruction, a long pause of nothing until it echoed across the town, responsive howls bouncing back and forth like conversation. She didn’t know whether they’d followed the chaos, or if the raiders had wrangled them, and it didn’t matter – the sprinters were at Beacon, and any hope of an easy exit was lost. Bushes rustled from across the gardens and Ruby steadied her hand, prepared for the worst. There was no way just the two of them could fight off so many - just one shot could summon the entire horde, but what else could she do?

The mass of white that emerged brought such relief it was tangible, a stop to all the horrible thoughts gathered in her head. 

“Weiss?” she asked hopefully, but her big blue eyes widened not out of mutual solace but instant panic. She jabbed her finger to her lips and shook her head, and then suddenly she was flying into the ground, Blake shoving her down, a loud _crack_ of gunfire and a sharp, cruel laugh following behind. Ruby didn’t know who’d been shot, couldn’t see the perpetrator even before Yang jumped in front of her; she was a human shield, blocking her vision completely, and for a moment Ruby was a little kid again, clinging to the back of her sister’s baggy tank top.

“It must be fate,” the voice that laughed said. “Thought you’d all gone on another scouting trip. Turns out you just ran, huh?”

Yang emptied her barrel blindly into the bushes, and all was still. Then he laughed again, pushed his way through into their garden, and Ruby knew it was the man who’d escaped them in the woods, and knew her decision to leave him to run was why Beacon stood crumbling.

“You piece of shit,” Yang hissed.

“Should have just handed over your stuff. Though, it works out pretty well for us. This find made me a bit of a hero; I’m the new leader. And if you thought we were trouble before…”

When she moved to see, Yang moved with her, keeping her from sight. _Stupid._ Like Ruby couldn’t defend herself. But she’d missed her sister’s protectiveness, missed not needing to make the call. Just for a minute, Ruby was happy to be defended.

Yang said, “There’s more of us than you, genius," and Ruby realised the sleek metal pressed into her arm was Yang passing over her gun, her movements reaching back for the second to take steady aim again. It was dark enough for him to ignore the little twitches. He couldn’t have taken the one-armed blonde as a threat. Ruby couldn’t help but feel something terrible was about to happen anyway.

“Sure about-“

“It’s just him!”

It was fine. Yang’s arm snapped into place and she shot him straight through the head as soon as Weiss stopped his lie, and he folded backwards and out of sight, and it was fine. A muffled, “We’re okay,” came from beneath the bushes and Yang rushed forwards, dragged Blake then Weiss to their feet and checked them over. A scratch, nothing more, skimmed the surface of Blake’s forearm. They could wrap it up with whatever was left in the houses, no problem. There was nothing to worry about. It was fine, she thought.

But they hadn’t kept quiet.

She heard the movement before the screech and could do nothing as it charged into her back and threw her gasping face-first into the grass. She heard Yang scream and another shot, but she could still feel the monster above her clawing, snapping, cold flesh on her skin. She was pinned, and something hurt, but she couldn’t focus long enough to figure out what. She felt its weight disappear, heard a loud, final shot. Ruby rolled onto her back and blinked up at the stars and her friends standing over her, exhausted, coated in sweat and dirt, shaking.

“It’s them,” she thought she heard Mercury, of all people, say; the thud of bodies hopping the fence certainly suggested more people had arrived, though how they were at Beacon and not Atlas she didn’t understand. Maybe she really was still in bed, dreaming. A throb of pain made sitting dizzying, and her shoulder was wet and hot. Her tired mind connected the dots. She knew the terrible thing had happened; before Yang kneeled down to touch the torn, flimsy fabric of her pyjama shirt Ruby knew what had darkened it was more than just a graze.

The dents the sprinter’s teeth left behind burned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen. Happy things happen in this fic I swear to you. I don't know what I was going through in November when I first wrote up the plot but writing this in happy, sunny July is not as fun as I'd hoped. Thank you for reading anyway! <3


	18. Atlas

If she squinted it could have been anything. Maybe Ruby had cut herself on stones as she fell, maybe there was glass in the soil – anything but what Yang feared the wound really was.

“I’m fine!” Ruby said, voice high and quick, as though someone had put her on fast forwards. Yang was still on pause. The blood was hot, spreading fast and sticky between her fingers, pale skin tarnished irreparably. When she met her sister’s eyes she saw they were brimming with terrified tears, and Yang foolishly thought she’d known heartbreak, but until that moment she’d never felt it’s deadening weight so clearly. It was as though the heart in her stomach had forgotten how to beat.

But her sister was bleeding, and they needed to clean it and cover it and stop it from hurting. When she said the words aloud no-one argued; just like her, she was sure they were pretending this was something they could fix. Absently she recognised Qrow crouch beside them, felt his warm palm on her back, saw Ruby disappear into his chest. She knew Mercury and Emerald were there too, distantly, following Weiss and Blake into the house, to find some old clothes, anything to soak the blood.

“You’re alright, kid,” came Qrow’s best attempt at comfort. Yang tried to join in, but her throat was dry. Ruby let out terrible whimpers and god, she knew the awfulness of the infection’s pain, the burning spreading through her veins, and there was nothing she could do.

Weiss stumbled to the ground and tore shreds from a cotton summer dress, apologised through her own threatened tears when Ruby gasped and winced at the contact. “There’s a car in the garage - the others are getting it started. We should go to Atlas. If anything can be done…”

“What about everyone else?” Ruby asked through shuddering breaths. “What if we miss dad and Zwei?”

“Your dad knows where we’ll go,” Qrow replied. Yang had never heard him speak so gently.

When Blake called back that the car was ready Yang walked with Ruby’s hand in her own, because the thought of breaking contact with her for even a second was unbearable. She was mumbling _I love you, I love you_ over and over again, she realised, and there were glossy streaks down Ruby’s cheeks, but Yang couldn’t feel anything but shock, and had no idea if her face was wet or dry.

“There’s not enough room for all of us,” Emerald said as she helped Ruby into the back seat. Yang climbed in too and pulled her sister’s face into her shoulder, and if Ruby turned she’d just get bitten, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. “Me and Merc can find something else. Ruby-“.

There was agony painted across Emerald’s paling face, and after some deliberation she clambered awkwardly over her to press a kiss against Ruby’s cheek. “I’m so sorry, Ruby,” she said. Her lips shaped something else soundlessly; she shook her head and repeated herself instead. “I’m so sorry.”

Through the window, Yang met Mercury’s eyes. Then Weiss put down her foot, and they rolled out into the noisy street and watched the flames devour Beacon in the rear-view mirror.

 

* * *

 

“You okay?”

Concern didn’t seem right coming from Mercury, and its presence could only mean Emerald looked as bad as she felt. She swallowed sharply, rubbed her hand over her eyes, and gave a short nod. Speaking seemed a poor plan when Ruby would be dead within hours. 

“Are we still going to Atlas?” he asked, eyes following their car until it disappeared around the corner. “No-one’s forcing us. We could skip the labs and the scientists and the being totally miserable until we die thing.”

“Is that what you want to do?”

He clicked his tongue, drummed his fingers on his knee and confessed, “Not really.”

“Then… let’s go.”

Beacon’s all engulfing flames burned so bright in the sky; the sunrise couldn’t compare. As they made their way north once more she noted the zombies and sprinters moving towards it, a stream of bodies like flies swarming to a rotting corpse. It could have been their home. Now it was just the distraction they needed to pass through the streets, unseen.

The car they finally started five or ten miles away was dented from some collision, an almost-rotted human man half through the broken windscreen. The stink it left behind was bad enough to make her eyes water all the way to Atlas – or at least, that was her excuse.

 

* * *

 

_She was in the hospital, leant over a patient who tossed and turned feverishly, skin grey and translucent. His hands were bound to the bed, and pinpricks lined his inner arms like freckles. Suddenly he was free, and his teeth dug deep into her bicep and then-_

_She was alone and sprinting so fast it took all her effort not to topple over, and groans followed close behind. She stopped and gripped the tree bark, looked out into the forest, felt teeth crunch down on her shoulder, and then-_

_She was hurrying to her friend’s side, fighting off the monster that tried to claim her, and its teeth embedded in her forearm_ _and she was crying out in pain, terror consuming her whole, and then-_

_She was standing in a stranger’s garden._

“How long?”

“Two hours. Or near enough.”

Even before she opened her eyes she could feel the attention on her, gaze searing already too-warm skin. She blinked hard through the rays of sunlight that boar through the glass. Her seat jolted up, and she remembered they were driving; to her right sat her sister, eyes damp and bloodshot, and she recalled something terrible had happened; fingers adjusted her makeshift bandage, and it all came rushing back - a keen strike of pain that made her whimper quietly into Yang’s shoulder.

Ruby was going to die.

Since she’d first seen the terrible consequences of the infection’s spread she’d fretted constantly over the deaths of her family and friends, but she’d never taken the time to imagine her own. If she had, she doubted it would have been like this: cramped in the back seat on a hot summer’s day, heart heavy with the loss of yet another home, uncle and sister on either side watching her with barely restrained horror. Dad left behind at Beacon.

At least the others were okay. At least she could take solace in that.

She wondered what it would feel like.

Yang’s fingers combed through her hair, just like when she was a little girl, sleepless from some silly nightmare. “Are you okay?” she half-croaked, then cringed and bit her lip. “Dumb question. Does it hurt?”

Absently Ruby looked at the blood-stained rags, acknowledging the dull thudding ache beneath. It did hurt, but it was more a gentle tapping at the back of her mind than outright pain, a cruel reminder of her terrible fate. She’d always expected it to hurt more – she’d seen people turn screaming in agony as the infection coursed through their veins, clawing at their skin, sobbing for it to end. Perhaps it was fear, not pain, that caused them to react in such a way. To Ruby it felt no worse than a dog bite.

“It’s okay,” she told her. “Kinda sore, I guess. It hurts to touch.”

“I’m gonna take a look, okay?” Qrow warned. He peeled back the cloth, and for the first time Ruby saw her fatal wound: a ring of bloody, serrated depressions, surrounding skin a tender pink. The sight of it made another twinge of pain shoot through her. Qrow’s brows knotted together in concentration, or puzzlement – Ruby couldn’t tell – and he touched the skin gently, earning himself a wince. “Sorry, petal,” he said. An old nickname, one she hadn’t heard in years. “It looks…”

“Mom’s looked worse,” Yang finished. She’d gnawed the skin from her lower lip until droplets of blood formed there.

“This is- weird,” Blake said. “She should have turned by now.”

“Perhaps the sprinters aren’t infectious?” Weiss suggested hopefully.

“Or maybe they just take longer,” Qrow muttered beneath his breath.

“Ruby, does it feel… hot? Not the bite, just… hot. Inside. In your veins.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said, and saw the surprise that lit her sister’s face.

Ruby slept, and she woke up, and she slept again. The sun reached its highest point and fell behind the trees on the horizon, making way for night. By the time its dusky pink signalled morning, panic had melted to dumb hope. She was still alive. Still breathing. Heart beating. The nausea of dread diminished; even the ache of her shoulder seemed mild in the new day.

It wasn’t possible.

“It’s possible.”

Crisp, clean, clinical – Atlas was everything she’d imagined from Penny’s many stories, an enormous hospital crawling with armed guards, men and women in bullet proof vests and lab coats, more alive than any other place they’d found over the years. There was something beautiful about its newness. Against the fresh sheets of the metal barred bed Ruby’s skin seemed unspeakably marred, dirt and blood staining the longer she lay beneath the harsh overhead lights, but nobody commented on it. Ironwood moved out of her sight, and she stared at the ceiling as the scientists or doctors shuffled around her, checking her pulse, her temperature, her blood pressure. Being in such a place couldn’t be real. In a weird way, it felt as though she’d already died and gone to heaven.

“This strain is different from what we’ve seen before, though there hasn’t been a chance for my scientists to study it in detail. If it is just as infectious as we believe it is, however… it would be genetically impossible for only one person to have full immunity.” Ironwood passed back into her sight. Though his face never budged from its stern default, Ruby thought she saw a flicker of kindness to his eyes.

“I don’t want to get your hopes up. The wound looks clean, but complications could arise further down the line. But, as I said… it is possible you will survive. If it’s alright with you, Ms Rose, we’d like to keep you for tests and observation. It’s nothing invasive,” he clarified, holding his hands up to who she assumed was her uncle, “but this is something we have to play safe.”

The bed gave a quiet creak as she sat herself up. It was a small room, and along with her friends and family three strangers dressed in white flitted in and out, speaking together in low voices. “I don’t mind,” Ruby said with a shrug, though she struggled to hide her nerves. “It’s pretty comfy!”

“I’m not leaving her,” Yang spoke, just as Qrow said, “I’m staying.”

“I’ll get someone to bring more seats,” Ironwood said. “Ms. Schnee, your sister is overseeing tests on our other patient. If you’d both like to come with me, I can show you where you’ll be staying, and she will visit you once she’s ready.”

Weiss and Blake hugged her tight, and slowly some sense of reality seeped back. Their warmth, their smell, their soft, scared eyes that watched her even as they left, as if she’d turn the moment they looked away – this was happening. The drum of her heart felt amplified. She was alive, and just as she’d known something terrible would happen, she now knew she was staying that way.

 

* * *

 

“Hands on your heads.”

Of course the people of Atlas wouldn’t make their arrival easy. Mercury and Emerald did as commanded and remained in their seats, waiting for the guards to pry open their doors and pull them out like somehow they’d sniffed the criminal on them. Braced against the hood of the car he stood patiently as he was searched for weapons he didn’t have.

“Handsy,” he quipped. “Wanna buy me-“

“Watch it,” a man’s voice said. Then, “They’re clean. State your business.”

Emerald took over the troublesome socialisation and explained where they’d come from, what had happened, who they were supposed to arrive with. Even then they weren’t shown in until the guards radioed and confirmed their story with someone inside, and then it was another long walk down long white corridors, a mirror of the home they’d had in WTCH Labs so long ago. Maybe they should have gone on the run - it wasn’t like he and Emerald did badly on their own - but she was on some crazy quest to make up for what they’d done, and she wanted to see Ruby, even if it was at her funeral.

Only threat of torture could get him to admit the same for Yang.

“General Ironwood would like to speak to you. Mr Branwen has agreed to join later this evening - he’s refusing to leave his nieces side for now, so you’ll have to answer the questions yourself.”

“Nieces? Plural?”

“Mm,” the guard hummed in agreement. “The youngest is under observation. I can’t remember her name.”

“Ruby.” It was sad how fast hope welled through Emerald, and she sounded nothing like the girl he knew when it came to the little red head. “Is she okay?”

Before the guard could respond, a door some way ahead of them swung open. Out stepped a tall woman, white hair in a tight, neat bun on the top of her head, bleary-eyed and followed by a group that could only be her inferiors - Weiss’s sister, he seemed to recall, who’d helped Emerald back in Beacon. The guard gave her a slight nod as he led them past her, but Mercury, ever nosy, couldn’t help but peak through the gap.

It was just a hospital room. The furniture looked sterile and severe, and trays of equipment lay on its various surfaces, just like the labs. A small lump disturbed the crisp bedsheets – a girl, staring dead-eyed at the ceiling, stomach rising and falling in tiny huffs of breath.

“Holy shit,” Mercury said, grabbing Emerald’s arm. Her mismatched eyes and two-toned hair were all too familiar. “That’s fucking Neo.”


	19. Recovery

“Excuse me?” Winter asked, cold as she looked. Even so, she waved off the guards when they raised their guns and let them pass, regarding Emerald and Mercury with curiosity. “What did you say?”

“Neo?” Emerald tried. A flicker of movement passed behind her old colleague’s blank eyes, but nothing more. Before Neo had been like a wild animal - now she seemed more dead than alive. Only the tiny movements of her chest gave her away.

“I take it you know the patient. She’s sedated,” Winter explained. “My team discovered her on the roadside on the way from Beacon to Atlas. At first we believed she was one of yours, lost, until she did her best to chew her way through my entire team. I had never seen anything like it. I assume you knew her before she was this way?”

When they’d first met, Neo had been so sarcastic. Still quiet, but a cruel, pointed quiet to keep her ill at ease, just for fun (or so Emerald suspected), because making people uncomfortable with her strange mismatched eyes and doll-like appearance amused her. She really did look cold, hard porcelain lay flat beneath the sheets.

“Yes,” Emerald exhaled. “They started experiments-”

That was all Winter let her say before sending for Ironwood. Emerald didn’t mind; getting the questions out the way in one go could only be a good thing. She vaguely remembered the general from his visit to Mountain Glenn, and the months hadn’t been kind to him; he seemed older, greyer, more tired than even she felt. Losing the potential cure in Penny had to have been devastating.

Ironwood watched her with intrigue, hands behind his back, already struggling to resist the urge to pace. Emerald had never spoken about her time at the labs before, and having the chance – no, having it _necessary_ to tell was… liberating. To be able to fix her wrongs. To alleviate the lingering guilt.

One tentative look at her audience, and finally, she began to talk.

“I had no idea where Cinder was taking me. From the moment we met, everything was a secret. It looked like this place, like a hospital or something, with all the workers in white coats – it was a few months before I found out it was called WTCH Labs.” That time had felt like an introductory period, where she sat and enjoyed the work of the others without ever having to leave their walls. That didn’t last for long.

“I figured they worked there before the infection started, or at least somewhere similar - they were all professionals, except for me, and Mercury, and Roman and Neo. Sometimes randomers were brought in, but we never talked to them or saw them again. Roman and Neo hardly talked to us either. I think they’d been around about a year before we moved in, and I guess they thought they didn’t need us.”

”One day Salem called us for a meeting. It was something like… they’d been successful, and wanted to move onto the next step, but she always left things vague. She kept Neo behind. After that, me and Mercury were sent out to get supplies, and Neo just… got sick, and stopped talking. She’d been injected with something. Her arms were bruised with the marks. Roman showed us the cages they kept the zombies in in the basement - I don’t think he knew about them before that, either. He was convinced that’s what they were trying to do to Neo, and I asked, but, you know, they didn’t want to tell us anything, except where to go and what to get next.”

“And what did they want you to collect?” Ironwood asked.

“Medicine, usually, but really, anything we could get our hands on. And they told us to kill the people we robbed,” she said, feeling the sudden drop in temperature as they coldly regarded her, “so they couldn’t follow us back. Salem didn’t want anyone finding out what they were doing. She said the work was too important.”

It was all they ever told her, _important work._ Early on, Emerald knew that it wasn’t the vaccine she’d once had hope for. The things they did had filled her with relentless unease, and it wasn’t until they began their tests on Neo that she figured out why.

“After every injection, they’d tell Neo to do something. To go back to her cage, to cut herself, to stay still while they hurt her. They weren’t trying to cure the infection,” Emerald said with a quiet certainty, “they were trying to use it.”

A sweeping discomfort passed through the room. She’d been foolish to take so long to realise: everything WTCH Labs did was with themselves in mind.

“It didn’t work. She only ever listened to Roman. It was worse when we escaped. Without the injections she…”

Emerald gestured at the girl staring up at the ceiling, and tried not to think about whether or not she could comprehend them, or if she was brain dead, or if there was anything left of herself at all beneath the surface.

No response. Neo had died back at Mountain Glenn with Roman - what they saw now was nothing more than a husk.

“Thank you, Ms. Sustrai,” Ironwood said. He had stopped pacing to drag his palm down his face, somehow looking more exhausted than before. “Qrow mentioned a book?“

“It’s in the car we took to Beacon. We didn’t have time to take our things.”

“We’ll need your help to find it. The people you worked for might not have intended it, but this could be exactly what we need to find a vaccine. If they were able to manipulate the virus in any way… we need every piece of information available explaining how.”

Beside her Mercury let out a huff of irritation and sunk lower into his seat, folded arms stubborn across his chest. She couldn’t blame him - god, she was so tired of moving back and forth. She’d forgotten what it was like to sleep through the night.

As if reading her mind, Ironwood said, “We’ll gather a team in two days’ time. Until then, I suggest you rest. The other survivors from Beacon arrived earlier today, if you were-“

“Can we see them?”

Muffled voices carried through the heavy door Ironwood slipped behind, and they grew steadily more heated the longer he remained. In the corridor her stomach clenched when one far more familiar, softer, reached her ears.

“It’s fine,” Ruby said. “I’m not even tired.”

“Gonna check out where we’re sleeping,” Mercury mumbled before the door opened, and sped down the hallway out of sight. _Baby._

Ruby was wan, smaller in the joyless hospital bed than Emerald had ever seen her before. She’d changed from the pyjamas she was sure she’d die in, and clean white bandages stood out against her skin, hiding the offensive indentations from sight. The smile she gave upon Emerald’s entrance wasn’t weak like she’d expected; it brightened her face until she looked almost healthy again. She couldn’t believe so few hours had passed since Ruby had received her near-fatal injury. Relief to see the girl she’d grown so fond of alive and well was so overwhelming she was temporarily struck dumb.

“Hey Em,” Ruby spoke cheerily. Qrow grunted his disapproval and exited, and Ironwood followed close behind. Yang, however, remained in her seat, observing their exchange intently.

“Hi,” Emerald said. “You made it.”

“Yeaaah. All that drama for nothing! Either the sprinters can’t infect us, or I’m immune? The doctors can’t tell yet, but they’re gonna do some tests, so I guess we’ll know soon.”

She thought of Neo several rooms away, and asked, “Tests?”

“Yep! Blood tests, that kinda stuff. They said it won’t hurt or anything - Penny was always okay, and I guess it’ll be pretty much the same, right? Is Mercury here, too?”

Nothing had changed. Emerald couldn’t keep her smile at bay as she nodded and moved closer, just resisting touching Ruby’s good shoulder, or brushing hair from her face, or holding her hand, only because she could still sense the harshness of Yang’s gaze.

“I’m… glad you’re okay.” Being kind was still new to her; sincerity tasted strange on her tongue, but the little snicker Ruby gave in return made the effort worth it.

Where could she even begin? The list of things she needed to say felt endless. She owed a thousand apologies, and she was already on such a roll, but with Yang’s eyes boring relentlessly into the back of her head it was difficult to think and Yang knew it. She narrowed them, glanced from her to Ruby and back again, and Ruby raised her eyebrows, a silent discussion between sisters Emerald couldn’t hope to comprehend.

“Call one of the doctors if you need to go,” Yang sighed her resignation. “And then find me. Don’t leave her on her own, okay?”

“Right.”

Yang’s hesitance faded, then, and suddenly she exuded sweetness, pecked Ruby’s forehead and hugged her close for several long minutes - a closeness she’d been denied her entire life, Emerald thought with a twinge of unbidden jealousy. Imagining what it was like to care and be cared for the way the sisters before her did was difficult, but the look on Ruby’s face when they were alone made it easier every day.

“Yang didn’t think you’d show up. She thought you and Merc were just gonna run off and we’d never see you again.”

“And you didn’t?” Emerald asked, taking Yang’s seat.

“Nope!” she beamed. “I always knew you’d come through.”

“You still trust us? After everything we did?”

The joy Ruby radiated faded somewhat as she thought on it, fingers twisting through her bedsheets in the long pause that followed. “Not… exactly,” she admitted. “I mean, I do, I think? I still- I still _like_ you, Em. A lot. I’m so happy you’re here. I don’t know what you did before, or if you told us everything, but… I don’t think you’d do it again now. I trust that. I just wish you’d told us.”

“I wanted to! We didn’t know Amber was your friend.” The name made Ruby flinch, and Emerald closed her eyes tight. “It doesn’t make any difference. I’m sorry, Ruby. I wish we’d met sooner.”

Ruby’s palm was warm and calloused when it took hers and squeezed. How anybody could be so forgiving, or understanding, or whatever it was that let Ruby comfort her despite what she’d done was so completely beyond Emerald, but she was learning not to question it, to appreciate it instead. Who else would be so lucky?

“You can stay in here as long as you want,” Ruby said. “Yang’s probably telling Weiss and Blake what happened. I… kinda lied to Ironwood, though. I’m so sleepy.”

“You can sleep,” Emerald replied. It wasn’t as though she needed permission; Ruby’s eyes had already slipped closed, though her hand remained enclosed around her own. Warm. Alive. “I’ll stay here.”

* * *

It wasn’t a bad room. A little drab, but it was drier and cleaner than those at WTCH labs. Mercury tested the springs on his bed once and then threw himself down, exhaling heavily as he lay spread eagled over the covers and stared up at the cracked off-white ceiling. Nothing but the occasional tap of boots across laminated floor reached him there. He’d left his already few belongings in the backseat of their car miles and miles away. Together, it made for something very lonely.

The quiet should have been welcome after the chaos they’d seen. For once, he didn’t have to worry about survival inside of Atlas’s walls. Lying there in a strange bed gave him time to think for the first time in weeks.

He didn’t want to think. He’d never been any good at it.

Despite the long journey, sleep didn’t come easy. He thought of Neo, barely alive a few floors beneath him, nothing more than a test subject now when she was once sharp and bright. Yang, so empty when she’d stared at him through that car window, how sure he’d suddenly been that if Ruby died, she would too. And Ruby herself, somehow breathing days after her bite, and he was _glad_ of it – not because it made Emerald happy, not even because of Yang, but because it seemed _wrong_ for someone so cheerful to be turned into something monstrous. It wasn’t only those who benefitted him on his mind any more. How the hell was he supposed to feel about that?

The knock on his door relieved him from his confusion. Emerald would have her own concerns to voice - loud enough, hopefully, to drown out all the things he didn’t want on his mind.

“They didn’t give you keys?” he shouted as he rolled from the mattress. “Or are you just-“

It wasn’t Emerald.

Yang pushed him in, kicked the door closed behind them, and before he could ask why she was there she showed him, slamming their lips together and wiping his thoughts clean just like he’d wanted, nothing to focus on but her burning heat, her hard nails digging into his collar, the urgency of her mouth chasing his and how she forced him back, back, back again into the bed fumbling with his top all the while, then his pants, determined but unsuccessful until he had to stop her.

“Yang,” he said, though he wasn’t sure why. Something didn’t feel right.

“I’m not here to talk,” she hissed into his neck and nipped at his skin, fighting to win control of her hand again. When he didn’t let go she pulled away and glared white-hot, teeth clenched, still wrong _._

“Yeah, I don’t think you want to do this.”

“Fuck you, Mercury. Don’t fucking pity me.”

“It’s not fucking pity. I’m not fucking you if you’re gonna start crying, I’m not into it.”

For a moment it looked as though she’d deny it. Her already red eyes glistened threateningly and she took an unsteady breath, holding back tears as though her life depended on it. A biting scoff passed her lips and she turned to leave, but he didn’t release her.

Sudden, shuddering sobs shook her from head to toe and he’d fucked up, because now he didn’t know what to do, because nobody since his mom had broken down in front of him like this, and he’d never figured out how to make it stop. Watching grief contort her pretty face was too raw, too uncomfortable to just observe hovering aimlessly between his bed and the door, so he let her hide in his shoulder and wet his sleeve, and held his hand awkwardly at her back.

“It’s stupid! I know!” she choked out. “I know she’s okay, I just can’t- I don’t know what’s wrong! I hate this! I hate always feeling like this. I’m so, so tired of doing nothing and losing everything _._ It’s not fair!”

That’s what he thought she said, at least; she stumbled through words muffled in his t-shirt so fast it was hard to tell, the breaths she drew between short and sharp like hiccups.

“Dad doesn’t even know what happened. He’s got no idea Ruby nearly- she nearly-“

He patted her back tentatively, as though she might explode, and couldn’t figure out why she was crying on his shoulder instead of Blake’s or Weiss’s. If she was still into him after what happened at the labs, she was crazier than he thought.

“She’s immune. Sprinters have to be able to pass it on with how bad the labs were, right? Now I can’t stop thinking they’ll hurt her to get some miracle cure and she’s not gonna stop them ‘cause she’s too noble, and she’d want to save humanity or whatever, and I can’t lose her. I couldn’t deal with it. Look at me! We knew two hours in she wasn’t gonna turn and I’m still a mess!”

Another quick breath and Yang pulled back to wipe her hot-pink cheeks, gaze pointedly averted from the damp imprint she left behind. Such open vulnerability embarrassed him more than it did her, he was certain; it brought him to the bed where he sat back against the wall to stare at anything that wasn’t her until she regained herself enough to join him.

The mattress creaked. Her bare forearm pressed against his.

“This is all messed up,” she said. “Shit, I’m so pissed at what you did.”

“You knew I killed people,” came Mercury’s retort. “The guys we saw before we got to Beacon, the ambushers by the labs. Don’t lie to yourself and say you didn’t know what I did before we met you.”

“Did you know you killed our friends?” she asked.

“No,” he told her, honestly. “Not until you did.”

It didn’t matter anyway. She knew him well enough to know even if he had realised who he’d killed, he wouldn’t have said a thing.

“I’m not saying sorry for punching you.”

He snorted. “Didn’t expect you to.”

“You deserved it.”

“Probably.”

She gave a quiet sniffle and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. Her masses of hair tickled his neck as she put all her weight against him, and despite her words she accepted his arm around her without protest.

In the morning she’d be back to hating him. That night didn’t count.

“I hope it’s on her mom’s side,” Yang muttered as they shuffled beneath the duvet. “If it’s from dad, I cut it off for nothing.”

His fingers brushed the stump of her right arm. Then he closed his eyes, and finally, they slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter might be a while! I have two conventions coming up in as many weeks and need to focus on finishing costumes. Once they're over I promise I'll be back asap! There's not much left, now! <3


	20. The Next Steps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Still here! It's been a very busy, convention heavy month that totally messed up my writing momentum. Thank you for waiting!

A shock of cold pinched the skin of Yang’s shin and drew her eyes open, though sight did little to help place herself in her strange surroundings. Something was wrong. The collages of children’s ancient posters and certificates were pulled down, wall bare and lonely without them. No. It was a different wall. There were two small windows, not one, that the sun had yet to reach facing her, and no desks between them. Yang shifted and felt something solid between her legs, and the weight across her weight was an arm, not a pillow.

_Oh._

The memories trickled back, bringing with them disappointment. Sleep had helped her to forget. Unfortunately, everyone had to wake up sooner or later.

She twisted around the body intertwined with hers until she came face to face with Mercury, still out, completely unaware of their proximity. Looking at him so closely knotted her stomach, though with what she couldn’t decide - anger, frustration, attraction. Still attraction. It was stupid and wrong after everything he’d said and done, but there regardless. Speeding her heartbeat. Heating her cheeks.

Perhaps that had more to do with her behaviour the night before. God, what kind of idiot thought they could just fuck away all their problems? Breaking down so terribly in front of anyone, let alone _Mercury_ , had been her worst nightmare – yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, she felt a little lighter having voiced her troubles aloud. Maybe Mercury would be decent enough not to bring it up. She had the feeling it had mortified him as much as her, anyway.

His eyes remained softly closed. Relaxed. Thoughtless. With a sigh she pressed her forehead to his chest and felt him pull her closer, though whether he was conscious enough to realise she couldn’t be sure. “I’ve gotta get back to my room before someone catches us,” she spoke quietly, to convince herself before she lost all will to.

Voice cracked with sleep, he said, “Wow. I really am your dirty little secret now, huh?”

“Wouldn’t be, if you hadn’t called me a slut in front of all my friends and family.”

He withdrew then, and rolled onto his back, staring holes into the ceiling as Yang slipped from the sheets and fixed sleep-tussled hair in the window’s reflection. He’d never apologise for the things he’d done, so she could never truly forgive him, and surely that was unhealthy in so many ways – but the world had ended, and everything was too messed up to worry about such trivialities. She liked him, at least half the time. That was how she justified it.

“I’ll catch you later, ‘kay?”

“Gotta go in a couple of days,” he told her. “We lost the book back at Beacon.”

A second passed before she asked, “Are you coming back?”

“Do you want me to?”

Instead of the doorway, she found herself crawling back up the bed to straddle Mercury’s hips, dipping down to take his lips with her own; a goodbye kiss, a ‘yes’, a ‘see you later’, an urge she’d acted on without much thought. Just a moment of stilled surprise and he was upright kissing back fiercely, hands slipping up the back of her top cold enough to make her gasp.

“It’s summer,” she mumbled against his mouth, thumb and forefinger holding his jaw in place. “What are you, dead?”

“Warm me up, then.”

She felt him smirk, his fingers work the clasp of her bra beneath her tank top. Despite everything, it was so easy to go along with. Too easy. She stopped his hands, pinned them to the wall above his head, and perked an eyebrow. “Really? You really think I’m gonna just show you my tits after everything you did?”

He didn’t bother to struggle against the grip he could certainly free himself from, only looked back and smirked his amusement. “Mixed signals,” he said, and sighed when she bit at his neck. “You’re killing me, blondie.”

“She won’t be the only one.”

Interruptions were par for the course; at this point she would have been stupid _not_ to expect to hear her uncle’s voice when she’d neglected to lock the door, when she hadn’t been back to her room or Ruby’s all night. Yang didn’t flinch; Mercury only huffed and thumped his head against her shoulder in his defeat.

Qrow stood arms folded in the doorway, and while his voice was full of expected frustration, he didn’t seem about to make good on his words. There was no surprise in it for any of them anymore. Apparently, she and Mercury were just that predictable.

“ _Yes,_ Uncle Qrow?” Yang asked, releasing Mercury to move to the edge of the bed and better glare.

“Got a little worried seeing you were missing when there’s a couple of killers around, or did you forget?”

“Is something wrong, or are you just here to be a dick?” she countered flatly.

“Ruby’s tests are starting. Thought you might wanna swing by.”

Back to reality.

She told Mercury to say goodbye before he left for Beacon and he agreed, though she wasn’t entirely convinced he’d make good on that promise. Slipping away would probably be a whole lot less awkward, but if something went wrong, she at least wanted to remember their final encounter without an unpleasant interruption. Whatever their relationship was or had been deserved more than that.

Probably.

* * *

 

In her life before, Ruby had been to the hospital exactly twice.

The first time, she’d fallen down the stairs. Yang had been so certain the flimsy cardboard box they’d liberated from the attic would be strong enough to withstand the journey, but at six years old she’d neglected to take gravity into account. Two steps down and Ruby was flying, flying, falling, hitting every step along the way. Her dad had been so worried, and even though she felt fine that worry seeped into her, too, and she cried the entire way across town.

Emerald looked worried.

The second time, she stood on a rusty nail. Her dad was building a new shed and hadn’t been careful enough taking apart the old one. It was the only time she could remember seeing her mom and dad argue, and Yang cried and cried because she’d learned about tetanus at school a few weeks before, and she was convinced Ruby would die. At the hospital they gave her a myriad of injections she’d managed to tantrum her way out of for years, and her arms ached as much as her foot from all the things they’d shot into her body.

Unsurprisingly, Ruby wasn’t fond of doctors. At least, not when she was on the receiving end of their sharp, pointy apparatus.

“You’re eighteen, Rubes. Don’t tell me you’re still afraid of needles,” Yang teased. Behind her a nurse, young and kind faced, checked his syringe.

“I’m not scared,” she replied, somewhat unconvincingly.

“Want me to hold your hand?”

“No!”

“Want _Emerald_ to hold your hand?”

“Yang,” they warned in unison, making Yang grin. She seemed more herself that morning, and while Ruby _wanted_ to be annoyed by her ribbing, she couldn’t help but smile and snicker at the normality of it - but when the nurse stepped closer, that smile quickly extinguished, and she kind of did want one of the two to hold her hand until it was all over.

A twinge of pain pinched at the crook of her elbow. Ruby looked anywhere but the blood swirling around the syringe’s vial, well aware of how ridiculous it was to be shaking when she’d just survived a zombie’s bite, unable to stop herself anyway.

“What’s next?” Yang asked, giving her hand a comforting squeeze despite her indignant protests.

The nurse looked up just long enough to identify the speaker, and said, “This is the worst of it, for now - until the results come back, I can’t say what other tests they’ll need done. Most likely, we’ll need some more blood samples and a few run of the mill check-ups to keep an eye on any unexpected symptoms and side-effects, but nothing painful. We still have Penny’s samples, so with any luck, it should all move a lot faster this time.”

He stuck a band-aid over her pricked skin and handed the vial off to another stranger. Ruby suspected none of them would remain that way for long. She’d be their patient for a long time.

“Is that all?” Ruby asked, hopefully.

“Yup!” the nurse replied. “Once you’re recovered we’ll probably take more, but that’s up to the General to decide.”

“I think it’s called exposure therapy,” Yang quipped.

“I’m not scared!”

It didn’t take long for the examination to be over. He checked her pulse, her blood pressure, the dilation of her eyes. He took her temperature and looked over her wound, cleaned it carefully, reapplied her bandages. Moving her around like a rag doll. Even though she couldn’t quite bite back her nerves, the knowledge that what she’d been through might help others strengthened her resolve. Maybe she could be the miracle cure to end their suffering. Maybe Beacon could be their last loss.

“Do you know when you and Merc are going, yet?” Yang asked Emerald.

Or maybe there was danger yet to come.

Ruby’s stomach sank.

“Wait. You’re leaving?”

* * *

 

“Wait.”

The voice trailed down the corridor he’d almost reached the end of, and Qrow came to a reluctant halt. Anything the little murder boy had to say couldn’t be good. He should have shot him the moment he’d found him under his niece, but he could just hear Taiyang’s voice in his ear, a strained, “ _she’s old enough to make her own decisions_ ”, that stopped just shy of, “ _and old enough to leave if we piss her off, just like her mom._ ” Yang definitely had her temper.

He looked over his shoulder, and waited for Mercury to continue.

Cockiness exuded in waves as he half sauntered, half limped over to him, and Taiyang’s words grew fainter and fainter with every footstep. God, Qrow struggled to stay out of Yang’s business when her business was such an obnoxious piece of shit. To think, he’d almost felt sorry for him.

“I got a question,” Mercury stated. Qrow sighed, folded his arms, and gave him his reluctant attention.

“And I got places to be,” he replied. “Hurry up.”

“How can you be pissed at us for hiding shit when you haven’t told Yang her mom’s leading the raiders?”

There was no doubt. He didn’t ask if Raven _was_ Yang’s mother. He’d connected the big, blatant dots all by himself, and there was bite to his question that Qrow didn’t like one bit.

“I thought I told you-“

“It’s none of my business, yeah. I got that. S’kinda Yang’s, though.”

Qrow pinched the bridge of his nose. He shouldn’t have hoped he and Emerald would forget what they’d overheard.

He needed a drink.

“Yang doesn’t even remember her,” he said. “Just keep your mouth shut. Knowing won’t do her any good - Raven doesn’t want anything to do with any of us.”

“See, that’s what I was thinking with the whole WTCH deal! And man, if you think she was mad at me for lying…” Oh, Yang would be furious to know all the things Qrow had kept from her, he knew that much. He narrowed his eyes, bit his tongue, because short of murder, there was nothing he could do to keep Mercury quiet, and they both knew it.

“I can stay out your drama, old man, just so long as you stay out of mine.”

Nineteen years was a damn good run.

Mercury left without another word, the arrogance that followed him increased tenfold. Frustrating though it was, stubborn though _he_ was, Qrow couldn’t deny that Mercury had a point. Yang had to hear it from him, and soon. Anything else would be a disaster.

“Having trouble?”

It wasn’t _jumping,_ but out of habit Qrow straightened his back, feeling every vertebrae click from years of misuse. Strange that he hadn’t heard the man’s heavy gait closing in - the bubbling rage Mercury left in his wake had been far too distracting.

“Could say that,” he replied, glancing up at Ironwood before sighing. “Teenagers. Always sticking noses where they don’t belong.”

“Ah,” Ironwood said knowingly. “That. Then, I doubt you’ll like what I have to say to you, either.”

He rarely liked anything Ironwood had to say, and so his transparency could mean nothing good.

“The notes lost at Beacon would be invaluable in finding what it is about your niece that stopped her from turning, but I cannot ignore the possibility that the information is outdated, nor that the journey to reclaim it would now very likely be fruitless.”

Qrow cocked an eyebrow.

“Lionheart reported increasing numbers of sprinters in the area, including the remains of recent missing from Mistral. We believe that is where the survivors from WTCH labs have fallen back. If we could find them, if we could stop them and take their most up-to-date research… we out number them, out-gun them. All I need is for someone who knows the surrounding lands like the back of her hand…”

“She’s not gonna help us,” Qrow said, bluntly. “She hates your self-righteous quest even more than I do.”

“I fail to see how _saving humanity-_ “

“Save it. I heard it all before.”

Again, Qrow sighed. No escape. Raven was going to kick his ass for even suggesting it.

“I’ll talk to her, but you better have a big reward waiting. She won’t do it for free.”


	21. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! It's been a busy month starting up work again and preparing (and then attending) RTX London, so I'm sorry for the long wait!

_Deep within the thick forest he sat, back pressed against the tree trunk, the wind that blew over him almost warm now winter had turned to spring. The fire helped. It cast flickering shadows over the sleeping body of his reluctant travel partner that transfixed him, distracted him from the creaking and whistling that wavered through the woods all around them. He hadn’t slept much, those past few days. The swarms of Mountain Glenn had imprinted into the back of his eyelids._

_A growl brought him to his senses._

_After years of scouting out safe spaces for his family, his eyes had adjusted well to the darkness. It was with ease that he located the source of the sound and ploughed his knife into its thick skull, the dull squelch it made familiar but no less unsettling. With any luck, it would only be a straggler._

_“Do you need assistance?”_

_Qrow closed his eyes. He sheathed his blade and returned to their shabby camp, taking his place back against the tree. “I got it,” he said. “Sounds like she was alone.”_

_Ironwood stood up, taking his time on his prosthetic leg, bones clicking with every movement. “I can take over. It’s impossible to sleep out here, anyway.”_

_“Atlas made you soft,” Qrow chided. “Afraid of a little dirt, now?”_

_The general ignored his tormenting, stretching and sighing instead. He gave their camp a once-over, circling the trees that gave them cover, squinting blindly into the bushes. Then he sat down, too, somehow more uncomfortable on the ground than he looked standing._

_“Why did you tell your family we were returning to Atlas?” he eventually asked._

_It was rare for Ironwood to pry. For a moment Qrow frowned, debated ignoring him entirely. He knew enough, after all – who they were searching for, why, what she might have done. Anything more was unnecessary. But it was a secret he’d carried by himself for too long, and maybe it was the exhaustion, maybe the anger, because that night he felt ready to share._

_“Raven’s my sister. Six minutes older, and she never let me forget it. Didn’t want a family, ended up having Yang anyway, left before her first birthday.” Qrow relished in the look of surprise on Ironwood’s face; cracking the mask was yet another rarity. “We kept in contact, and when the infection spread, I knew where she’d be. Made it a lot easier to deal with Tai’s suspicions.”_

_“How do you mean?”_

_“He never knew for sure I knew where she went. If I told him, he’d have gone after her, so I kept my mouth shut. Better to save the drama. After the outbreak the questions stopped, anyway – there were more important things to do than find a missing ex-girlfriend – but I had to know if she’d survived. And I found her, obviously, safe and sound with her new ‘family’. She loved the idea of doing whatever she wanted, when no-one could stop her. She always was a brat. The end of the world’s a dream for Raven.”_

_Qrow poked at the dying flames and sighed. Raven left a trail of misery wherever she went, and he was tired of covering her tracks. He didn’t expect talking to her would do much good. He didn’t expect her to tell him the truth of what happened at Mountain Glenn. All he wanted was for her to know that he was_ done _._

_Morning came quickly, red spreading through blue-grey clouds too soon. They stretched out their aches and pains and suffocated the flames with soil, and left their camp in silence._

* * *

“No.”

He should have known better than to hope for anything more - Raven’s refusal was as plain and blunt as she was, entirely immovable.

“Wait.”

He didn’t let her go. Radio to his ear he paused, knowing she stood debating at her end, that she hadn’t quite reached the level of frustration she needed to leave him unanswered. They were twins, after all. If anyone could take on an immovable object…

“Tai’s missing.” Even miles apart he could picture Raven’s face, the way her lips tightened when she felt something she didn’t want to feel, the twitch of her fingers clenched in a fist. “He never made it to Atlas.”

Hours had passed since Ironwood’s request, but it had taken that long and half a bottle of pilfered whiskey to convince himself the argument was worth the trouble it would cause, undoubtedly, whichever way it went. Footsteps echoed a few hallways down and Qrow moved from the sound, lowered his voice even further.

“You know I don’t give a crap about Ironwood’s ‘vision for the future’, but you can find WTCH and make them pay for what they’ve done better than anyone. You don’t have to stay and play happy families. Just get us there and take what you want when they’re all dead.”

He gave her a minute to formulate something, but she gave no rebuttal. He didn’t know if that was good or bad.

“Raven?”

Nothing.

“Stubborn bitch.”

Muffled by white noise, Raven replied, “Fuck you,” and he knew that was the negotiation's end.

Plan B it was, then. And god, he hated plan B.

* * *

_Something feral had come over her in their time apart; she was all tangled hair and dirt-stained fingers, older, gaunter, truly a corvid in human skin. That’s what happened when you lived on the outside for too long, he thought. Raven looked like shit, and he told her so._

_“Like you look any better,” she replied, not missing a beat, eyes and shotgun trained unwavering on Ironwood’s back. The general held his hands high._

_“It’s the sobriety. My insides are rebelling. What’s your excuse?”_

_The twitch of her lip was almost indistinguishable, easily mistaken for a snarl by those surrounding her, but Qrow knew Raven better. To find her in good humour surprised him - even she should have the decency of solemnity in the wake of her actions. Mountain Glenn had lost too many to her raiders for her to feign ignorance._

_“What brings you here, little brother?” she asked anyway, and lowered her weapon._

_“You know what.”_

_She waved off her men. They disappeared into the woods, talking low, glancing back at them. He doubted they’d leave earshot, but Raven waited until they were out of sight before speaking again, anyway._

_“It’s not our fault your home was destroyed. It’s no crime to take from its remains. Not anymore, anyway.”_

_“Cut the act. Someone slit our guard’s throat. It was a planned attack.”_

_Raven’s brows lifted in surprise, and in an instant, Qrow realised he’d misjudged her._

* * *

The air outside was heavy with a scent of industrial waste Yang hadn’t noticed upon their entry, because with Ruby flitting in and out of consciousness there’d been more important matters at hand. It was strongest at the back of the building, heady chemicals that reminded her of spring cleaning the year her dad found a dead rat under the bathroom floorboards; in the heat it was almost dizzying, but it was quiet outside, and the sunlight was soothing.

Mercury rubbed the skin beneath his nose, still yellow with bruising, then wrinkled it again like he had repeatedly since they’d arrived. Obviously it bothered him more than her, but for once he didn’t complain - he sat in silence against the high chain link fence, listening to the pebbles he threw clank against the trash cans.

Family had been on her mind a lot in that week since escaping Beacon. Her dad had yet to arrive at Atlas’s gates, and by now she knew that the longer he was missing, the less likely the chance of his survival. It hurt in the dull sort of way all death did to her now, which felt so heartless when she loved him so dearly, but until she knew one way or the other, it wouldn’t feel real. He was absent, not dead. That didn’t stop her from missing him.

Eyes closed, Yang tilted her face to the sun.

She’d been thinking about genetics, too. That was something outside of family for her, her birth mother a stranger. Five years ago it had been her obsession - now she could hardly remember the last thought she’d spared for Raven. It only seemed right that this one be bitter enough to make up for lost time, because she wished Summer had been her mom in more than name. She wished whatever had passed from her to Ruby had been in her veins too, protecting her from the mutilation she’d suffered without it. No matter what conclusions the scientists came to, she wouldn’t shake the feeling that Rose blood might have spared her - and she was used to her life, now, with that absence of weight on her right side, but she wished she didn’t have to be.

She’d been thinking a lot.

Another clank echoed over the empty lot; Mercury had tapped his prosthetic in the gravel, and Yang watched it absently for a while, wondering if he still had those same thoughts, too.

“You never told me how it happened,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow, and replied, “Zombies.”

If he were any closer she’d have punched him. It must have shown; the smirk he gave was easy, natural. “Nothing exciting,” he amended. “I was getting my ass kicked. Wasn’t paying attention when it snuck up on me.”

That certainly sounded like him. “One of your marks fought back?”

“My dad.”

Oh. Somehow, that made a lot of sense - the look on his face told her it wasn't a one time thing.

Yang looked away, and said, "Sorry."

“Don’t be.” He tapped his foot again, smirk turned vaguely sardonic. “It got him too. He died screaming.”

Qrow’s drawl cut through whatever Yang had tried to say in response, surprise sticking words to her throat. Yang blinked up at him, though his eyes were elsewhere. “Beacon’s off. Pack your bags for Mistral.”

“Mistral?” Mercury asked flatly.

“Everything’s pointing east. Ironwood wants data from the source. I’m gonna get a head start and scout it out, and you’re coming with.”

“Uhh, no, I’m not.” Indignance pushed him to his feet, eye to eye with her uncle - it was with some reluctance that Yang rose too, ready to put a stop to things if they came to blows. “I’m not being bait. Fuck that.”

“Scared?” Qrow taunted. “You know them. I need you to identify bodies, any familiar vehicles, anything that gives us a hint to what we’re dealing with.”

“Ask Emerald. I don’t owe you shit. I’m not going.”

“I am,” Yang said.

Mercury paused. Qrow narrowed his eyes and told her, “No, you’re not.”

“Uhh, yes, I am. Ruby gets to help just by existing! I’m not gonna sit around this stupid, boring lab until a vaccine appears out of nowhere.”

“You’re not exactly stealthy, firecracker.”

He may not have been wrong, but his agitating tone only strengthened her resolve. Thinking did nothing but depress her; her last _escape_ had turned too complicated. Maybe shooting zombies was what she needed all along, and if it helped save what remained of the world? Well, that was just a bonus.

Mercury said, “I’ll go if she does.”

The exasperation that came over her uncle was oh-so-satisfying; he covered his face with his palm, catching his huffy sigh. Resigned.

“Whatever. Tomorrow morning. Be ready to say your goodbyes.”

* * *

_"If you didn’t do it, one of your men did.”_

_“That’s ridiculous.”_

_“How long’s it gonna be till your traitor tries to take over? You don’t even realise they’re all sniggering behind your back, thinking you’re not doing your_ _job, that they can do a_ better _job, and you’re not going to till they’re sneaking up in the middle of the night to slit your throat instead. You’ve got to think, Ray. You’ve got to be–“_

_Raven straightened her back, eyes glinting a dangerous red through the dark quickly falling over them. Qrow would never fear his sister, but he saw the point she made; she could handle herself, didn’t need her little brother worrying over her._

_“They must be stopped. Whoever did this killed the closest chance we have ever had to a vaccination.” It had been a while since Ironwood had spoken, and Qrow wished he’d just kept quiet. “Penny was eighteen. A child.”_

_Whatever effect he had expected his revelation to have on Raven fell predictably flat; with a sidelong glance she shut down any hope that she would express guilt, eyes rolling with her indifference. Who could think a sob story would work on her? Raven had never cared for anyone but herself._

_“Get as far away as you can from here, tonight. Now. Don’t bother coming back. I won’t hesitate to kill anyone who threatens my family,” Raven said, and looked Qrow in the eyes. “Even you.”_

_He didn’t bother to point out she hadn’t asked after Yang. That argument was ancient, and the mood had soured too much to risk it now. She wouldn’t kill him - even as she said it he knew it was all show for her stupid followers. Ironwood, however…_

_Qrow took tossed his radio to Raven; her quick hand darted out to catch as though she’d expected it. As she turned it over, he warned, “Don’t change the channel. Call me when I’m right.” Childish, perhaps, the way he turned his back on her, ignoring the frustration that narrowed her eyes, but he couldn’t help it. Raven always had a way of bringing out the pettiest parts of him._

_He guessed that’s what family was for._


	22. Meanwhile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is super short! It didn't fit with the theme of the last one and won't fit in with the next but I wanted it in anyways, so here it is.
> 
> I forgot to mention last chapter, but Adox spoiled me AGAIN with more gorgeous art from this fic! Check it out[here! ](https://fanaticalparadox.tumblr.com/post/166187733808/hahaa-so-it-turns-out-i-never-actually-posted-this)

_A few days._

It was all Emerald had known to say when Ruby questioned her departure. The pit of her stomach sank ever lower. Nobody had bothered to tell her.

They were always moving, now, but Ruby liked the certainty of one place – the familiarity, the stability, the comfort of home. As a child, she’d even hated school trips. All she’d wanted was her own bed, and now she finally had it, and it came with the condition that she couldn’t leave. Not for the foreseeable future. What a cruel irony. In the years since the world's end home had to be something different, not a place, but the people she moved along with. She wondered how many would leave her side before she’d be allowed to join them.

Disheartening though it may have been, she understood the need for her confinement after Penny’s demise. She understood that her friends and family would need to come and go to keep Atlas running, to support the scientists searching for a cure in her DNA. She didn’t have to like it. She just had to make the best of it.

How could she make the best of Emerald leaving?

Her skipping heartbeat told her she already knew.

Emerald’s visits were regular, but that day the time between check-ups and her arrival seemed elongated beyond reason. The minutes moved her from her bed, to the chair, to standing, to the bed again, nowhere feeling _right._ It gave her time to rehearse what she’d say; it also gave her time to change her mind. And god, she was so close to changing her mind.

When footsteps stopped outside the door, a shadow blotting out the hallway’s light, Ruby thought, _fuck it._

“Okay, before you say anything, please just – just let me talk, ‘cause otherwise I’m gonna chicken out and I have to get this off my chest before you go, ‘cause if I don’t and something happens to you, I’m always gonna regret it, okay?”

Emerald paused not even halfway into the room, lips parted in halted speech, reluctantly silent, brows high.

“It’s… I… I just want you to know, that it doesn’t matter what you did.” She scowled, corrected herself. “I mean, it _does_ matter, but… I forgive you? Or, I can forget it. I don’t know. I think you’re great!” and she cringed, covered her face with her hand. “You’re a good person, and I know you regret what you did, and I know you want to help us make things right.”

Emerald opened her mouth again.

“Wait, no! Ugh, that’s not what I wanted to say. This is a confession, okay? I like you a lot. You’re grumpy and quiet, and you’re pretty, and you roll your eyes more than anyone I’ve ever met, but you’re nice and I _like_ that about you. And I mean it in a, uh… in the gay way. Even if I shouldn’t. I wanna be with you and stuff. Officially. When you come back from Beacon. And that’s it. That’s what I wanted to say. Okay.”

Oh, the words had left her in such a flurry she’d almost forgotten to breathe; she inhaled shakily and stared at her blinding bed sheets, and the heat her cheeks emitted had to be adding a few degrees to the room’s temperature. It was stupid. She knew Emerald liked her – they’d already kissed, after all (twice!) – but turning that into something solid when everything was so uncertain was sort of… terrifying.

When she braved meeting Emerald’s eyes again she saw her mouthing words she struggled to vocalise, and Ruby gave a nervous chuckle, running fingers through her hair until the quiet was finally disrupted.

“Um,” Emerald began, then took another pause. “I’m not leaving any more. The, uh, plan changed, and your uncle is taking Mercury and Yang to Mistral, so…”

“Oh.” Her stomach flipped, equal parts joy and humiliation.

“But what you said-“

“Never mind! It’s cool, you don’t have to-“

“No, I just never expected-“

“It’s fiiine. Just, remove it from your memory, pretend it never happened-“

“Ruby!” Emerald interrupted successfully, the ghost of a smile flickering over her lips before she buried her face in her hands, cheeks darkened. “It’s not that.” Her speech was muffled; Ruby sat up a little straighter, as though it would help her hear. “I wasn’t expecting this. I’m not used to it. I’ve never done this before.”

“Me neither,” Ruby admitted, then mumbled, “Probably why I blurted all that out like an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot.”

Emerald perched awkwardly on the edge of the hospital bed, masterfully avoiding eye contact. Ruby had no idea she could be so nervous. Fingers twisting in the sheets, she remained quiet for a long while, far past the point of comfort – it was with all Ruby’s strength that she didn’t dissolve into more embarrassing babbling. Whatever Emerald was trying to build up to was obviously more difficult than she could have imagined.

“I think I like you too,” she finally said.

Oh. That was all. Ruby laughed, then, full of relief, and Emerald turned like she’d been electrocuted. She waved her hand, held the other over her mouth as she said, “Sorry! Sorry,” giggles subsiding into another heavy wave of silence. Ruby said, “I thought you were gonna turn me down. You mean it?”

“I didn’t when we first met,” she confessed, “I think I was just jealous you could be so happy. I was never happy. But you... grew on me.”

She grinned and threw her arms around Emerald’s waist, squeezing her from behind – Emerald let out a gasp of surprise and then laughed herself, one quiet chuckle she quickly quietened out of habit.

“Soo, you hated me, but now you think I’m super cute?”

“I never said that,” she teased, reluctant smile snaking back into place.

“Hmm. Then I guess you don’t wanna kiss me again…”

Emerald paused, thinking her next words through carefully. Ruby felt she already knew the answer. This time she couldn’t pass it off as an accident, exhaustion clouding their judgement; they weren’t half asleep, or high on their lucky escape. Ruby tugged Emerald back and pressed their lips together for a third time, and grinned into Emerald’s happy sigh. 


	23. Reconcile

They’d drive as far as the old WTCH labs provided they could find a spot to refuel, half way between Atlas and Mistral, south and just a little to the east. Though it was just the three of them it would be cramped; the abundance of Atlas’s supplies never ceased to amaze him, and a good portion of it overflowed in the backseat, making its way into his lap. Their little scouting trip was important to Ironwood, after all. It wouldn’t do to let them starve.

Mercury was mostly just glad to have a gun again. It was good to feel its weight at his thigh, his temporary helplessness abolished. He’d figured agreeing to the journey would rearm him, would free from the monotony of the hospital’s walls, but really, neither reason truly explained his decision to leave.

Yang’s knees were pressed into the dashboard as she reclined in her seat, jolting from the pothole laden roads that signalled their exit from Atlas’s well-kept boarders. She asked, “How long's this gonna be, again?”

Qrow repeated, “A couple of days.” It was nothing but dead grass and wilderness, signs of life thinning the further they travelled. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “After that, we walk. Should take a week to get to Mistral on foot. After _that_ , I don’t know, so don’t ask. You wanted this.”

“I’m not complaining!” she said. Mercury saw her brow furrow in the rear-view mirror. “I’m just making conversation. You two suck at talking. It’s quiet without Ruby.”

He sighed. “There’s no way Jimmy’d let her out.”

“I know,” she said quietly. “I think she got why I wanted to go, just… I don’t know.” She turned her face to the breeze and watched the dry fields roll by. “I miss them already.”

Parting with Emerald hadn’t been hard, no more than a quick “see you later” and a lazy wave she returned. It was only a few seconds compared to the twenty long minutes of Yang squeezing her sister, telling her to stay safe, reminding her to say hi to their dad on the off chance of his return. Weiss and Blake made their cases to join, of course, but he heard Yang whisper to keep a watch over her sister when she hugged them goodbye. Not that they’d have been allowed anyway. Stealth seemed unlikely with just the three of them, let alone five. 

“Still time to turn back.”

“Not a chance.”

A smirk crept onto his lips as he met Yang’s eyes in the rear-view mirror, and he watched as it infected her in turn. Maybe that’s why he’d changed his mind. Maybe he knew Qrow would relent and take Yang with him if he was there. Maybe he just wanted to follow her.

Maybe he loved her.

No. That wasn’t something he had any experience in. Honestly, he wasn’t entirely sure he was capable of it. There were those he enjoyed the company of, sure – Yang, Emerald, his mom, once upon a time – but whether that was the same as love he had no idea. He wasn’t even sure he could _hate_. Mostly, it was all just apathy. As Yang’s pretty eyes flickered away to the road, the only thing he could be relatively certain of was that he wanted her to love _him_ , and that that was probably as close as he’d ever get.

“You’re not doing that the whole way,” Qrow said. “Making googly eyes at each other in the mirror.”

“Oh my god.”

“I don’t care if it sets us back a week, I’ll turn this car around-“

“I _looked_ at him!”

He took watch that night, on the car’s hood staring out into the nothingness. The road to the old labs was used enough for zombies to be few and far between, but still, he liked to practice caution - the one thing he and Qrow had in common. At least it was nice enough to sit comfortably, though a chill breeze reminded him summer was coming to a close. Soon he’d be back to long nights suffering the aches and pains of his amputated leg. And wouldn’t that be fun.

A few feet away Yang turned beneath her blanket, and he’d been in the dark long enough to determine the lines of her face, to know that she was watching him. She brought it with her, fabric trailing through the dirt as she hopped up to his side, the hood’s heavy creek almost betraying them to her uncle snoring at the roadside. He thought he’d been warm enough on his own, but Yang’s skin was like fire; he was sure she’d leave a perfect imprint of red where her thumb drew lines up and down the bumps of his knuckles.

“Thanks.” Yang spoke softly, close enough for her breath to tickle his cheek. “I know this isn’t fun for you.”

“What’re you talking about? Having a crazy old drunk around who can’t shut up about how much he hates me? It’s just like home.”

She buried a pained groan into his sleeve. “Don’t joke about that.”

He asked, “Why?”

She took great care in choosing her words, pursing her lips, weighing out the consequences. Months of sneaking around together, of making out in hallways, of stripping down in classrooms, and only now could he see the side of her everyone else knew; considerate, caring, kind. It should have been so annoying. It would have bothered him from anyone else, walking on eggshells.

“I know you don’t want my sympathy. I know I can’t fix it, or whatever. But I can’t get it out of my head. I can’t stop… connecting the dots.”

Of course. The scars that marred his skin had existed far longer than the zombies they faced, and Yang wasn’t dumb.

“You didn’t deserve it, you know? You’re an asshole, but – okay, sorry. We don’t have to talk about it. If Qrow’s making it hard on you, I’ll get him to shut him up. That’s all.”

“He’s not that bad,” he told her. “Wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t deal with it.”

Doubt was thick in her hummed response, but she didn’t press any further. Her fingers tightened around his.

“He’ll get over it,” she assured him, her tone a little lighter. “Or repress it, I guess. Either way, I’m sure you’ll be the best of friends by the time we get back.” Mercury scoffed, and she rest her head against his shoulder. “I’m gonna sleep here, ‘kay?”

As promised, a few days later they passed by the ruins of WTCH Labs, and there the zombies herded thicker. That signalled the last leg of their drive. Mercury couldn’t say he was excited to wander Mistral’s borders on foot – a day in and already he lamented the loss of his back seat, the freedom that came without heavy rucksack straps digging trenches in his shoulder blades.

It wasn’t pleasant in the thick shadows of the woods, with the howls of the dead growing ever closer. Following the sprinter’s wails seemed pointlessly reckless - suicidal, even - but it wasn’t as if they had any other leads. After his late-night talk with Yang he’d decided to stop asking himself what he was doing there, running straight on into danger when he’d spent so long putting his survival first. Agreeing to scout had been a moment of madness, followed by several other smaller moments that probably compiled into full blown insanity.

“Get some sleep, kid."

Oh, he was definitely losing it. Qrow approached, stretching his long arms above his head, joints creaking.

Mercury frowned. “I’ve been here twenty minutes, tops.”

“You look like shit. Sleep.”

All the walking did take it out of him, and that day had been a bad one, although he wasn’t about to admit it to Qrow. Each bush’s whisper sent adrenaline pumping through him regardless of what he was doing; whether he was trying to sleep or sitting up on watch, it didn’t matter. Qrow probably knew that feeling. It wasn’t like any of them had expected scouting to be a vacation. A few hours of lost sleep was the least of his worries.

He gave Qrow a cautious once-over.

“Just go lie down, already. I’ve already had plenty of chances to kill ya. It’s not gonna be tonight.”

“Comforting.”

“I don’t hate you,” Qrow said abruptly, and Mercury raised a doubtful eyebrow. “Don’t get me wrong – I don’t like you, either. In a tight spot, I’m ditching you and getting Yang out of here. But you’re not here for me to shoot the second your back’s turned. For some reason Yang ‘likes’ you. All I wanna give you the chance to fix the dumb shit you did so that stops making me gag.”

A chance. It was as if they were aspiring to awkwardness, conspiring to drag what emotions they could from him. There were so many spiteful replies for him to give, each sat at his tongue’s edge, ready to bite. What held them back came as a surprise. Maybe bickering with Qrow wasn’t as much fun as he’d pretended. Maybe he really did just want things to be simple.

It wasn’t like he was going to make any great effort to be amicable… but if Qrow was willing to try, then he could probably hold back, too. At least until the next wave of boredom struck him.

“ _Sleep_ , kid.”

Without a word he picked himself up and did as he was told, unravelled his blanket from where it tied to his rucksack and lay it out in the dirt, and heard a little tut.

“Uh-uh. I don’t think so. Ten feet apart.”

Baby steps.

 

* * *

 

Her blisters had blisters. Every day they set up camp she checked for blood in her shoes, but so far her still white insoles betrayed her whining as just that. It wasn’t like she’d expected scouting to be easy. She just never thought the _walking_ would be the hard part.

They encountered a few zombies here and there, of course, and the unmistakeable sound of sprinter’s screams had led them further east. Though they sent shivers down her spine, Yang almost looked forwards to those little battles, if only because they broke up the monotony of travel, or gave the illusion of progress. So far, their incredibly important mission felt an awful lot more like an awkward family road trip. Especially those last few miles.

It had been hours and hours of silence, and they’d seen nothing at all.

Well, that was good, she told herself. Less danger.

“That’s Mistral,” Qrow eventually said as the sun began to set on their quiet day, pointing out a distant hill that rose up through the dense woods. She could see the tiny speckles of houses congregated at its top, the flickers of light that indicated life. It made her heart swell with memories of Mountain Glenn. “We’ll stop for tonight, meet up with Lionheart there tomorrow. He knows we’re coming. Any luck and he’ll have found us a new lead.”

“Sounds good to me,” Yang agreed, though she’d have said anything for five minutes rest. When she thudded to the ground she lay spread out on her back and huffed an exaggerated sigh, watching the stars blink into view through deep red clouds. Mercury unsettled the grass as he made a pillow from his rucksack and lay beside her, eyes closed in an instant.

“You two lazy assholes going to sleep already?”

“Mhm,” Yang hummed. “I know you’re gonna have us up at the butt-crack of dawn.”

She thought she heard him check in over the radio. Then it _was_ dawn.

Yang pressed her palms into her eyes then sat upright, inexplicably alert as her memories caught up to her location. The sky’s rich red had turned a blinding orange, sun creeping lethargically up and over Mistral. Beside her Mercury mumbled something unintelligible, arm searching for her waist, and she realised with some discomfort that it wasn’t his voice that had pulled her from her slumber.

“Uncle Qrow?”

A quiet noise of recognition came a few feet away. Propped up against a fallen tree, Qrow gave a grimaced yawn as he awoke himself, and she saw the moment the realisation dawned upon him – that he’d slept straight through the night, too.

“Shit.”

“I heard someone.” The bushes that surrounded them rustled with eerie movement, but she was certain it was more than that; somebody had spoken, somebody close by. Times they’d encountered the living in the wilderness had left painful scars, and alarm shuddered through their small camp as they scanned the woods for more movement.

“There,” Yang said suddenly.

Qrow aimed between the trees. “Hands up,” he told the shadows, “and we’ll let you live.”

It ambled towards them, feet dragging through the dirt. Until it crept into the light she couldn’t be sure whether it was human or zombie, but the sun soon illuminated the gashes that gored its face, the rot that exposed bone. It stilled her, stilled all of them. Something was very, very wrong with the way it moved. With purpose.

She realised their mistake almost instantly. In those few seconds of distraction the twigs around them snapped, dead leaves crunched. It wasn’t just one zombie. There were at least six, seven more just like it, eight, nine, emerging from the thicket all around them.

She could taste her heartbeat.

“Stay where you are,” a bored voice called out to them. Tension shot through Mercury, freezing him solid.

The man that joined the dead was a little older than Qrow, with greying black hair and a thick, dark moustache. The sound of his arrival did nothing attract the zombies’ attention. In fact, they stopped in their tracks, almost as if it was them he had spoken to.

“Place your weapons on the ground. Rest assured you _are_ surrounded; do _not_ -“

Mercury fired once, twice, and Qrow followed suit, but at the first sign of conflict the zombies spread, some to the stranger, some lunging towards them. Her aim was so off left-handed - she couldn’t get the shot, and when ones rotted hands grab her arm and neck, she was sure it was all over.

The man tutted loudly from behind his wall of living dead, wounded but standing, like loyal dogs, and what held her made no move to bite - it only waited, obediently.

“What did I say? _Don’t struggle_ ,” she heard above her grunts as she kicked and scrambled, stomped on its foot, elbowed its gut. Its strength overwhelmed her. Pain didn’t work against a zombie. She could have torn its right arm straight from its socket, and it would only squeeze tighter with its left. “Hold them tight.”

It wasn’t just her. They’d latched to Qrow and Mercury too, and they didn’t stand a chance. At nothing more than a wave the zombies that guarded the man parted. He sauntered to where Mercury stood tugging against his restraints, humming thoughtfully to himself with every step.

“I have to say, I’m surprised to see you again, Mercury. Prosthetic difficulties? Or are you here to apologise?”

“Fuck you, Watts.”

How were there so many of them? She’d never been so close to a zombie for so long; its stench took her back to the storage room, and it was all she could do to keep her breathing steady, much less formulate a coherent thought.

Lucky her uncle was with her. Always calm. Always clever. From the corner of her eye she saw Qrow pull one arm free, saw his capturer’s teeth came too close to his shoulder.

“ _No,_ ” Watts spoke sternly before Yang could, and shot straight through the zombie’s skull.

For a second, Qrow was free. That was all it took.

But when he took aim, Watts fired first.

The bullet tore through Qrow’s flesh. His gun slipped from his hand; he fell to his knees in pursuit of it. Blood spread so fast, coating the fabric above his hip a murky crimson. Another obedient took his arms behind his back as he coughed and spluttered and bled on the ground.

Through clenched teeth, Yang screamed her throat raw.

“I warned you not to struggle,” Watts chided. “I gave you one chance. Now, on your feet, and quickly. We have somewhere to be.”

The lingering stars twinkled from sight, and the orange sky turned grey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've finally formally plotted the final chapters! I'm 90% certain there'll be 30 and plan to have it finished before volume 5 ends (hopefully sooner).
> 
> Sometimes I post little updates or reblog G&G/bloodmint things on my tumblr, [anawitchs.tumblr.com](http://anawitchs.tumblr.com). That's also where I put the art people have drawn from my fics! Go take a look. Occasionally I post short stuff I don't upload here and anon is on, so feel free to ask questions or send requests if you want, too.
> 
> Thank you for reading :D


	24. Come Back Soon

Footsteps thudded closer, drowning out the scuffling of clothes on sheets, the whispered panic as a flurry of red and black dived beneath the bed. Emerald positioned herself naturally atop of it - as naturally as she could, anyway - and tried not to dwell too hard on why it was so damn hard to act innocent now she finally was.

“Have you seen Ruby?” The armed patrol stood out of breath in the doorway, a perfect picture of irritation. Ah. Now she could lie, something she was much more adept in.

Carelessly she shrugged, feigning her own frustration. “Nope,”” she said. “But it’d be _great_ if she could stop disappearing so you’d stop bothering me.”

One gave a heavy sigh. Of course they didn’t buy it - there were only so many times she could cover for Ruby without them getting suspicious - but at the very least, they respected her privacy enough to give her room nothing more than a cursory glance.

“Ironwood asked for her. Just tell her it’s urgent.”

_Slam_. Ruby emerged for air grinning her goofy little smile, so proud of herself for evading capture another few hours.

“Thanks, Em.”

It started just after Yang left with Mercury and Qrow, but Emerald had sensed it coming long before then. Immunity might have been in Ruby’s blood, but the ability to sit still certainly wasn’t - it was a miracle she’d managed it the time she did, though those weeks had been easier with a constant flow of friends and family flitting in and out. There were fewer visits now. It didn’t take long for restlessness to overcome her.

“They said it’s urgent.”

Ruby gave a long, indignant groan, and threw herself on the bed.

“It’s never urgent. He’s just gonna tell me there’s ‘been no change in my condition’,” and Emerald assumed that was her Ironwood voice, and couldn’t hold back a snicker. “It’s so boring in there, Em. And they’re always watching me! It’s driving me nuts.”

“That’s what happens when you’re the cure.”

She scrunched her nose, an expression of utter distaste at the term. Emerald was only teasing. She was more than happy to hide Ruby from the doctors and scientists. It kept her mind off of her missing family, and anything that stopped the sadness that came over her when they reappeared in her thoughts was worth it.

They hadn’t called in last night. That was the problem. One day away from Mistral, and no word from Qrow, or Yang, or Mercury. There were dead zones all over the place, and it was entirely reasonable to assume they’d stumbled into one, that by the day’s end they’d hear from them again… but she could understand Ruby’s concerns. Even she was a little worried. Mercury was a shit, but he was her best friend, and she couldn’t imagine life without him.

The same thoughts must have caught up to Ruby, because suddenly she was wrapping her arms around her, burying her face in the small of her back. Emerald patted the hands at her stomach and leant her head back onto her shoulder.

“They’re fine, Ruby.”

“What if they’re not?” she asked into her shirt.   

Another hurried knock saved them both from dwelling on it, and this time Ruby remained in place, like Emerald’s body would shield her from inquisition. Perhaps her lie had been less convincing than she’d thought for them to have returned so soon, but she’d already prepared herself for the scolding she’d receive for helping hide their miracle cure.

She would have invited them in, but the door was open within seconds of knocking. Weiss stood where the patrol had just moments before.

“God, I knew it.”

Ruby peaked over her shoulder, and Emerald didn’t have to see her to picture the dramatic pout that surely sat at her lips.

“I only left like, an hour ago! Please, _please_ just let me-“

“Ruby, you idiot.” Weiss held up her hand to command silence. Apparent annoyance aside, she wore a smile. “That’s not why we were looking for you. If you’d been in your room like you were _supposed_ to be, you’d already know - your dad’s here.”

The arms around Emerald’s waist loosened.

“The nurses are treating him, but he’s okay. He’s on the first fl-“

Emerald only just managed to catch herself on the side table when Ruby dislodged and sped past them both. By the time she could be certain she wasn’t about to faceplant the floor Ruby was gone, and Weiss stared down the corridor after her in stunned silence.

“Rude,” she commented once she’d recomposed herself. “She doesn’t even know what room he’s in!”

Emerald was pretty sure she’d just kick open every door until she found him.

When they reached the first floor it wasn’t clear whether that had happened, but she quickly realised she didn’t need to ask Weiss for the room number, either. On the ground in the middle of the hallway Taiyang knelt with Ruby in his arms, head buried in her shoulder, Ruby’s relieved sobs coming out in half-chokes and delighted snickers. A familiar yapping accompanied them as Zwei bounded around the father and daughter, worming his way into the hug where he could. Unbelievable. So many weeks alone in the zombie infested stretch between there and Beacon should have finished him. Apparently resilience was another thing strong in the Xiao-Long Rose bloodline.

Gently, Taiyang touched the bandages that still hid Ruby’s wound. “Is it okay? Does it still hurt?” His voice cracked, and Ruby smiled through her tears.

“It’s okay now! Don’t worry.”

They weren’t alone in the corridor. The nurses who’d tended to the superficial cuts on Taiyang’s arms stood watching, smiling with them. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t their reunion – good news was scarce, and anyone’s happiness had a way of catching.

Another woman hovered some distance away, and when Emerald finally noticed her she was surprised she hadn’t sooner; she was more out of place in the stark white corridors than anyone she’d ever seen. Her untamed dark hair and piercing eyes made her seem so wild. Their eyes met, and Emerald was hit with sudden recognition – she was sure she knew her from somewhere, but couldn’t place the face.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t have any way of letting you know. I was so, so worried about you and Yang, but I knew you’d make it. I just knew it. Where is she?”

Ah. That explained why Ironwood was absent. Clearly he had no intention of telling Taiyang that he’d sent his friend and daughter to such dangerous lands. Ruby kept her hands on her father’s shoulders as she pulled away, face falling.

“She went with Qrow to Mistral… to the scientists from that lab we found. They might have research that can help make a vaccine.”

“Idiots.” The woman crossed her arms. Her voice was sharp, cutting easily through the room’s joy. “They’ll get themselves killed.”

Ruby eyed the woman with curiosity, glancing from her to Taiyang again, brows high on her forehead. He seemed strangely torn between ignoring and acknowledging her comment, but evidently decided he had no choice.

“What’s in Mistral?” he asked her.

“What you’re calling _sprinters_ , and a never-ending list of things you haven’t even come close to. I warned Qrow it was suicide.”

The mood continued its rapid decline, and suddenly the woman’s identity became obvious. Emerald hadn’t met her before, but she’d seen that same look at the labs, when Yang had thrown herself at Mercury. Raven had the same eyes, same stature - how had she not realised? This was the woman who had warned Qrow of Beacon’s fall. Yang’s mother.

Ruby had yet to connect the dots. She offered Raven a somewhat strained smile, masking her confusion as best she could. “You know my uncle?”

Like she’d forgotten how to speak, Raven turned to Taiyang for rescue, and Emerald didn’t envy him - for the first time in her life, she was glad she’d never had the drama of family. A tense moment of quiet passed as Taiyang slowly released Ruby, all too aware of the audience they’d gathered, and said:

“This is Raven.”

 

* * *

 

 Raven.

Her sister’s mother had always been shrouded in mystery. She could list the things she knew about her on one hand.

One: she was Qrow’s twin.

Two: she went to school with her mom and dad.

Three: she had black hair.

Twenty years of absence, and that’s all her dad and uncle had ever let slip.

In the chaos surrounding the raid on Beacon, he’d heard Zwei’s barks and followed him through the smoke into the woods. Making his way to Atlas was easier said than done; he’d erred on the side of caution, chancing the zombies under tree cover in favour of the violent raiders who’d taken their home. He’d travelled north, not as familiar with the land’s layout as well as someone like Qrow, but his determination to reunite with his family brought him damn close.

Then Raven found him. The way he’d phrased their meeting made it sound like some miracle – his long-lost ex and friend, mother of his eldest daughter, appearing against all odds to lead him home to them. Though he seemed content to put it down to coincidence, Ruby didn’t buy it. She was almost certain she’d been searching for him, that Qrow had passed the message of his absence on. That was how she came to know her fourth fact:

Raven still cared about her dad.

But she didn’t know how to deal with that. Rather than sit in on their conversation any longer, she accepted the nurse’s probing to have her own unimpressive wounds inspected in a room down the hallway, and said nothing as she left her dad relaying his story and checking the bandages at her shoulder, teary eyed.

“I’m so proud of you,” he kept repeating. Praise was nice, but she wasn’t sure DNA was anything to be proud of - in fact, the longer she spent under Atlas’s watch, the more she wished her ‘gift’ had been given to anyone else. Lying idle while her sister and uncle searched for real, concrete information had left her feeling useless, endlessly restless. Maybe she was being selfish, but like them, she wanted the change she made to be something active. What good ever came from sitting and waiting?

When she thought of her remaining family fighting without her, she couldn’t help but wonder how many more miracles they had left.

After a while, Ironwood took her dad aside to answer every question he could possibly ask – and he could ask a lot of them. Emerald and Weiss had left them to their reunion, but she soon grew tired of hearing her status repeated, the recollection of every test she’d had in the month or so since her arrival.

“I’m gonna get some air. I kinda already know this story.”

“Of course,” Ironwood replied. “I’ll see who’s free to accompany-“

“It’s fine, really!” Her words came out light and cheery and just a little panicked as she held her hands up in protest. “I’m not going past the gates or anything.”

“Go ahead, petal. I’ll find you when we’re done,” her dad promised. “James. She won’t go far.”

For once, his fatherly authority had a use; Ironwood relented with a cautious nod, and Ruby gave her dad a grateful hug. The contact brought her optimism flooding back – if he was fine, then why wouldn’t the rest of them be? She should have been celebrating the victories they had, not mourning the ones they might not… but it was a fleeting moment of hope, that faded the moment she stepped from his sight.

All she wanted to do was share the news of her dad’s return with Yang, and tell her that Raven was finally home, ready to meet her. She made her way to the guards at the gates, hopeful the guards would lend her their radio and allow her another attempt at contact. Maybe she’d get through just as they left a dead zone, and then the worry would settle a few more hours. At least until the next time their check in came late.

Something caught her attention first.

As she left the hospital’s confines, a glimpse of a figure moved against the gates far too shifty to belong to any of the guards. It slipped behind the shed, expertly making use of its surroundings to cloak its movements from the men who stood watch. Ruby hadn’t picked up a weapon, but there was a tug in her chest that told her she wouldn’t need it. Just a second’s glance and she was sure she knew who it was she had seen.

She followed, creeping up behind her. As she found a spot to climb Ruby disturbed the gravel, and Raven froze.

“Are you leaving?” Ruby asked.

Raven turned. The expression she wore was unreadable to Ruby; her thoughts were closely guarded, and for a moment she was sure she wouldn’t bother to respond. She couldn’t be sure, but it almost felt as if she was being studied. Then the mask dropped, just a little, to something like guilt.

“Yes.”

In the years of complications, of injustice, of misery, she’d never once felt _angry_. That was always Yang’s job, to curse the unfairness of their situation, to shout and scream her way through every emotion. In her absence, Ruby felt it for her; it welled up until she had to grit her teeth to keep it in, but even that wasn’t enough when Raven offered her no further explanation, nothing for walking out on her dad, on _Yang, again._

“Why!?” She didn’t bother to lower her voice - Raven’s clean escape was already ruined. “Don’t you know what you did to them? Dad never talks about you! He can’t - but you were all Yang ever talked about. Do you know how badly she wanted to find you? She’d turn the house inside out looking for anything with your name on, and you’re not even gonna wait and see her when she comes home?”

“She won’t come home,” Raven snapped back. “None of you have any idea what they’re getting themselves into. I’m going to save them from their own stupidity.”

Her fury faltered. With wide eyes Ruby blinked up at her, fear taking its place.

“What’s really in Mistral?”

Raven sighed. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me!”

It wasn’t a debate. With one last look at her Raven slid her foot between the bars and pushed herself up, coming to a stop to perch at the spikes on top.

“Tell Taiyang I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ll send Yang and Qrow back to you. But that’s all.”

Then she thudded to the floor. Through the gate Ruby watched until she vanished from the lifeless town, chewing her lip, deep in thought. Twenty years and Raven hadn’t worried. What waited for her sister and uncle in Mistral had to have been worse than anything they could have expected.

Could they really just wait and see?

Dark settled earlier than the night before, cloaking the hallway in deep shadows. Ruby pulled the rucksack straps tighter; it dug into her scarring wound, still tender. Between her fingers the paper crinkled deafeningly. She held her breath as she pushed it beneath the door.

_Dad,_

_I’ve got to find Yang and Uncle Qrow. I’m scared something horrible is going to happen, and I can’t lose anyone else. I couldn’t tell you because I knew you’d stop me._

_I’m sorry. We’ll come straight home._

_I love you so much!_

_Ruby_

_xxx_

_(P.S. Somebody should fix the fence!)_

In the hours since Raven left she’d chewed her lips bloody. It was nerves; it was guilt. Part of her knew she should stay, but she needed her family – all of them, together – and that thought was enough to make her certain. She had to try.

Emerald waited at the back of the building by the high chain fence, and hadn’t taken much convincing. Or any convincing. To her left, Weiss folded her arms and spoke low to Blake on the floor, prising the links apart. The conversation drew to a quick close when she emerged. It was a moment of complete silence, most of Atlas’s residents asleep, the wind unusually still, like it was holding its breath, too.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

 In unison, Weiss and Emerald rolled their eyes.

“You’re not going alone.”

“It’s not like there’s anything better to do here.”

Blake snipped the last piece of fence and lifted it enough for her to crawl through.

“We have your back, Ruby,” she said. “Let’s bring them home.”


	25. Something's Wrong With Mistral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on another Yang/Merc Christmas fic (not for this au), hence the slight delay. Expect it in a few weeks! I might only be posting it on [tumblr](http://anawitchs.tumblr.com), but hopefully I'll manage another chapter of this before Christmas too, so I'll link to it directly there if anyone wants it!
> 
> Alright thanks enjoy!

Minutes passed with every blink. He was in the camp. He was in the woods. He was in the dark. He was on the floor. He was on his feet. The pain made it difficult to recall any details of their path, but he thought the walk might have lasted them something less than half an hour. They’d been so close to their objective. What a shame they couldn’t have found WTCH first.

Blood warmed everything from his torso to his knees. He figured the bullet had lodged somewhere above his hip, though with the obedients carrying him along, he hadn’t had much time to check. Just enough of his sense remained for him to know it wasn’t a fatal wound - not if they could treat it. The question was whether or not they’d have the chance.

Yang had screamed, but it was with some pride he realised she wasn’t crying. She let the zombies drag her without further struggle, a silence as steely as Mercury’s, jaw clenched in her rage. _Just like her mom._ God, Raven would love her if she met her. His thoughts began to wonder again, blood loss dragging him down.

He was on the porch. He was in the room.

He was falling to the floor and Yang and Mercury took over for the obedients slack, dragging him to the single bed against the back wall. He was on the bed. The zombies were gone. The man named Watts remained, and another had joined him.

“… Tyrian certainly had his uses. Do you have any idea how _messy_ these things get? I had to put down number 86. I had to _shoot_ that gentleman.”

“She won’t be happy.”

“I don’t doubt it.” There was a sigh. “Ah, well. Errors are par for the course. I am sure she can be appeased with new subjects. Be good and make yourself comfortable until we’ve come to a decision.”

The door was closed.

“Qrow? _Uncle Qrow_?”

Yang touched his face until he focused on her. He could feel hands at his shirt, a stab of pain as the fabric disturbed the open wound. There was a tearing sound as Mercury ripped a strip of fabric from the bedclothes, probably unclean, but the risk of infection was a distant worry. The blood pouring from him had slowed, but not enough.

“Come on. Please don’t die.”

The door was locked. The windows were boarded. Nothing to use as a weapon. Before delirium set in he needed to figure it out – their escape, Yang and Mercury’s. Probably not him. He was enough of a realist to know his injuries wouldn’t be seen to any time soon.

He was enough of a realist to know nobody would save him in time, but if he could get them out, it wouldn’t be for nothing.

 

* * *

 

He was out.

Voices came from the room upstairs. The words were too muffled to make out, but he could recognise Salem’s familiar cadence – measured, calm, though that told him little. She could have been skinning Watts alive for all he knew. Her tone had the same sickly sweetness regardless.

Yang’s fury made her rigid where she stood by Qrow’s side, fist balled, jaw clenched. His unsteady breaths were the only indication that he still lived, for now; undoubtedly, there was little time until they stopped. Even if they managed to get out, he couldn’t picture a scenario where Qrow could come with them. He doubted he’d convince Yang to leave him behind.

Blood seeped from him slowly, staining the soft blue bedsheets a muddy brown.

He trawled through the small room for anything he could use to get the upper hand against whoever opened the door next. An empty closet contained two coat hangers. The cupboard draws were empty. There was a wooden chair that he could potentially knock Watts or Salem or Cinder out with if one showed up alone, but it would stand no chance against Hazel. Then they could steal whatever weapons they had, take out the rest of them, and make their way back home. 

“These are the guys you worked for?”

He nodded. “Salem’s the woman upstairs. Watts has the moustache. Big guy’s Hazel. Haven’t heard Cinder yet, so maybe she’s dead. Tyrian’s dead. Roman’s dead. Neo’s good as.”

He tested the chair’s weight. Yeah. It’d work if the right opportunity arose.

“How are they controlling them? How is that even possible?”

He put it back down and shrugged. “I guess that’s what the tests were for. Me and Em were gonna be next after Neo. That’s why we left.”

“What, it didn’t matter when it was other people?”

There was a fight rising with her voice. It wasn’t something he ever expected her to understand. It wasn’t something he’d change, either. The look he gave her was flat, unmoved as he crossed his arms defensively.

“Em and Cinder took me in, fixed me up, gave me food, gave me a bed to sleep in at night. The world’s over anyway. You really think I’m gonna ask questions?”

“I would!”

“I’m not you!” God, he hated that she pretended she didn’t already know what kind of person he was, that she hadn’t from the start. “I don’t care about anyone but myself. Stop acting like it still surprises you.”

For the second time, he saw fire in her eyes, and at her rapid approach he braced himself for another broken nose. He wasn’t her target. Instead, she banged her fist against the door hard enough to bruise her knuckles, taking out all her frustration, shouting at the top of her lungs over and over again.

“Hey! Salem! Watts! Hazel! Who-the-hell-ever!”

The voices stopped. Seconds passed, and footsteps stormed down the stairs. The door slammed open so fast it almost hit her.

“ _What_?” Watts asked irritably.

“Help him,” Yang spoke through gritted teeth. “You said you didn’t decide what to do with us. He won't be any use dead.”

Watts rolled his eyes, a reluctant babysitter to bratty kids putting him out of his way with their dim requests. Condescending. Bashing his brains out with the heavy chair had never been so tantalising, but Hazel followed close behind, watching silently for trouble. Not this time.

“I’ll make you a trade." The man turned his gaze on him. Already, his stomach sank. "Mercury. Give back your stolen property, and I will look at him – like a _servant,_ no less.”

“Fuck you.”

Even if it meant Yang would never speak to him again, he wasn’t rendering himself helpless, not when Qrow was going to die anyway. To his disbelief, Yang’s outrage was just as fierce, squaring up to the man regardless of Hazel’s imposing presence looming behind. Watts placed his hand on the gun in his pocket. All too quickly he realised that contrary to what he’d said, he _did_ care - that if either of them tried to hurt Yang, he’d do something stupid. 

Hazel placed an arm between them, calm and steady. Her anger couldn’t blind her to the fight she couldn’t win one-handed. Yang deflated. Watts watched him with silenced frustration.

“You aren’t so valuable you won’t be killed for disobeying,” Hazel said, gaze moving to Mercury, too. “Give him your prosthetic. This time, you’ll stay.”

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Ruby. Wake up.”

The shoulder she’d rested upon shook her, dislodging her despite tired protests. Warm light stung her eyes as she pried them open, unfocused until they fell upon her betrayer. Emerald perked her brow, then nodded out the window. The car had stopped at the foot of a hill, and a winding dirt path between apparently vacant homes curled towards them, stretching all the way up to those at its top. Mistral.

Following the signs that lined the highway to their destination had been easy, which was good, because they had been too hasty in their escape to take the time to find a map, or even to properly pack previsions - her stomach gurgled with hunger from their journey, and with guilt from leaving her dad, and with nerves.

Mistral seemed suspiciously dead.

No guards. That’s what confused her at first. Every other place they’d visited had somebody on watch, but every vantage point was abandoned.

“It’s quiet,” Blake commented. Weiss worried her lip. Emerald kept her opinions to herself as they followed the path upwards, but Ruby could sense her concern, too. They had hoped to take advantage of Ironwood’s relationship with Lionheart to restock before finding her family and returning home. If it really was the ghost town it appeared to be, neither goal seemed likely.

One small mercy was that it wasn’t overrun. Though deserted, bizarrely, no zombies stumbled into their path, and any groans they heard seemed distant, carried over from the woods far enough away to be of little concern. There were no signs of raiders, few broken doors or windows, no damage from flames. Had they packed up and left? No. Ruby frowned. Mistral was the largest settlement after Atlas, and Lionheart had been in contact little less than a week ago. There was no way it could have happened so quickly.

“Hey, hey! Hands on your head!”

Ruby jumped in surprise, hastily following the voice’s instructions.

“Alright. Now turn around. Slowly!”

They did. She looked up and up the house on the hill, the windows overlooking them vacant. When she got to the roof, there was a flurry of movement; the man, alone, swung down from the drainpipe and landed gracefully on his feet, hands on his hips and a familiar grin on his lips that quickly turned from pride to disbelief.

“ _Ruby?_ ”

_No way_.

“Sun!?”

Then she was up in the air, twirled in a bone-crushing grip she hadn’t felt in over a year. He made his way through them, even Emerald, squeezing them tight – a reunion Ruby had never dreamed of expecting, just a passer-by when Mountain Glenn had been in its infancy who’d left too soon.

“Oh, man. I never thought I'd see you guys again! What are you doing here? Where’s Yang?”

“She hasn’t been here?”

Slowly, Sun shook his head. “I don’t think so… we haven’t had anyone stop by in a while. Mistral’s a _fortress_ – seriously, as long as you stay on the hill, you’re good as- crap, sorry.” He put a hand over his mouth, mortified. “I didn’t mean to rub it in. I heard what happened to Mountain Glenn, and Beacon. That’s rough. But I’m glad you guys made it!”

“Sun. _Sun._ You’re crushing me.”

“Sorry, sorry!” Sun dropped Blake back to the ground. He’d already started his second excitable round of hugs, but now too much unease coursed through her to enjoy it.

“Did Lionheart tell you what happened?” Weiss asked, a delicate pat of his back in return for his affection.

“What? No. But that reminds me-“

He didn’t need to say. Her attention was already gripped by something further, by two figures stumbling down the path, a small orange haired girl death gripping the hand of her slower companion. No _way_.

Nora almost took her down.

“I knew you got out! I knew it! After everything we’ve been through, there’s no way a bunch of a-holes with guns were gonna take you down. I _told_ you, Ren.”

“I know,” Ren said, and helped them both back up. “I didn’t disagree.”

“We knew you’d all be going to Atlas, but there were raiders in the way, and zombies, and just a whole bunch of crap. Ren came from around here, sooo we figured we’d give Mistral a try instead! We didn’t know till we got here it was a dead-zone, and we wanted to check in on you _so_ badly, so we were planning-“

“It’s not a dead zone,” Blake interrupted. Nora blinked at her, then nudged her shoulder with a grin.

“Of course it is, silly! No contact in or out for miles around. That’s what Lionheart said.”

“But Lionheart’s been in contact with Atlas. That’s why we’re here. He was meant to tell us when Yang, Qrow, and Mercury arrived.”

An uncomfortable quiet fell, a bad feeling that infected them all in turn.

Something was wrong with Mistral.

 

* * *

 

Things had been bad from the get go, and they didn’t take long to deteriorate.

It had been a long time since Yang had felt hunger so fierce. Four days, or thereabouts, with nothing but bare minimum. The boarded windows let in the tiniest specs of light, but she could rarely guess the time with the shrinking summer days. Still, it was all she could think to do, to guess what Ruby was doing back home. The rays seemed duller than usual, so perhaps it was evening. Maybe she was already settled for the night, getting prepped for her next tests.

Yang should have stayed.

They made Mercury take off his leg. There was something sadistic about it, so violating her anger edged close to nausea. He was quieter than she’d ever seen him, and she’d have been the same. She hadn’t had the luxury of a replacement, but having it taken had to have been like losing a limb all over again.

She crossed the short distance to Qrow, and left half her food beside him. Watts had stayed true to his word, at the very least – roughly he’d washed and dressed the wound, stitching it haphazardly, Hazel looming over them all the while. Before he left he’d wondered aloud how easy it would be to control someone half-dead. Yang placed the back of her hand on his forehead. Red hot. A fever. It had been a little hope, but even that was diminishing. She couldn’t see Qrow making it much longer. Like always, the thought was weightless in the back of her mind. _My uncle’s going to die._ They were just words. They didn’t mean anything.

Because she probably was, too. The door was locked and heavy, their captors cautious. She’d thought Mercury might be able to bludgeon one of them, but now he couldn’t put the strength behind it, and there was no way she could with only one arm. At their best, the three of them should have been the hardest to capture, harder still to keep - together, they were strong, resourceful, stubborn, bitter. But Yang had one arm. Mercury had one leg. And Qrow was dying.

“It’s not fair,” Yang said for what felt like the hundredth time that year, but she’d started it able and confident, ready to take on anything, and now she was starving in a shitty bedroom at Salem’s mercy.

As she’d expected, neither gave a response. She walked to the window and tugged at the boards again, earning herself nothing but splinters. She punched it. Her already bruised knuckles protested, and the wood remained the same; solid, impenetrable, blocking out the light.

She yelled her frustration. She sat on the floor.

Maybe someone from Mistral would query their lateness. Maybe they already had. It wasn’t completely impossible someone would figure out where they were from their last recorded location.

But it didn’t seem likely.

“This is stupid, but uh…”

She lifted her head from her knees and peered across the room to Mercury, sat against the door.

“I know what we did was fucked up. And I’m not lying when I say I don’t care. But I don’t think I’d do any of it again with you.” He paused. “Not unless I had to, anyway.”

Oh. She’d almost forgotten that argument, just heated words brought on by her own hopelessness. It was important – of course it was – but it wasn’t the time or the place. Mercury evidently thought otherwise, averted eyes burning holes into the cheap carpet. That even _he_ thought they were doomed to die in there sparked something in her.  

“I know you won't. You like me too much.” The sound he made was close to a laugh; he neither confirmed nor denied it. Somehow, she managed to smile. “I believe you. Amber’s group were the last. Except those assholes upstairs, obviously.”

Qrow sat upright, sharp gasp of pain startling her as his wound fought against the movement. “Amber.”

Mercury shrunk further away. It was stupid for them to even try and talk about it with Qrow in the room, even in his current state. Seeing him fidget made her own stomach ache; he moved enough to reach into his jean pocket, and as she ran to help him, produced something Yang had seen before. Dark cropped hair and big brown eyes stared up at her from the thin plastic card. She hadn’t seen him take it back at the labs, but it made sense that he would. He and Amber had always had been close. Maybe keeping her picture helped.

He held it out to her expectantly. Yang was slow on the uptake.

“Do I… have to do everything around here? … Get the door.”

_Oh._

It was just a stupid little house lock, nothing that needed the specialised tools they’d lucked out on years ago, a far cry from the security they must have grown accustomed to at the labs. Their breakthrough had yet to pull them from their post-disaster slump. A few quick swipes and a nudge and the door swung open, and brightness poured in. All they’d needed was one chance, but.

“Wait.” As fast as it had risen, her heart sunk. “You can’t…”

“Doesn’t matter.” Qrow collapsed back on his bed with an awful gasp, hand clasped over his injury.

Mercury shrugged.

“Not like we’re gonna get anything else,” he said. “Go ahead. Kill ‘em. Break us out. Be a hero.”

“Don’t.” Qrow already sounded weaker, back on the verge of unconsciousness. “They’ll have those… things ready to take you down. Mistral’s an hour east. Get help.”

Either way, she’d have to move far faster than she was expecting. She hesitated. It wasn’t like she had to pack. No. The problem was the two men she’d be leaving behind, and the very honest voice in her head that told her the second their kidnappers noticed she was gone, they’d be good as dead. If she stayed, they’d all die anyway. Leaving now would be their only chance.

Yang dropped to her knees and kissed Mercury hard enough to quiet the voice that berated her for leaving them behind. It wasn’t fear for herself that made her hold him so tight. When she pulled away she rest her forehead on his, and awkwardly, clumsily, she told him, “I like you too much, too.” 

She squeezed Qrow’s hand as she stood. Anything else in his state was too risky.

“I love you,” was the only thing that felt right to say. “I’ll be back soon.”

The hallway was cold and empty. As she stood between their room and the next, her breath halted. A shuffle of feet upstairs told her there wasn’t time to doubt. Gently as she could, she took one last look at her uncle and her boyfriend, and closed the door.

 

* * *

 

When fifteen minutes passed in silence, he figured she’d made it. A smile found its way to his lips. It was tired, even that simple movement of muscles exhausting to him.

“She won’t get back in time,” Mercury said, matter-of-fact. He knew it too. Their job had always been to find what WTCH had done. To turn it back on them and fix the mess they’d made.

“At least she’ll make it.”

Yang could still do that, with Lionheart’s help. Nothing else really mattered.

“… Yeah.”

The pain in his stomach had subsided, making way for new drowsiness, clouding his senses. Everything hurt, but distantly. His breaths were slow. That probably wasn’t good.

“You’re not so bad, kid,” he told him.

“You’re delusional.”

The laugh scratched his throat. “Don’t fuck this up.”

Something was happening upstairs. A door slammed closed. Quick steps stormed down the stairs. Yang’s escape must have been close. He’d hoped for a little longer, but then, he’d always been unlucky.

With a laboured sigh, Qrow closed his eyes.     


	26. Hard Times

They sped up the steep hillside to the house that crowned it, grander than the rest, where Lionheart resided oblivious to them. Ruby had questions about Mistral. 

"Didn't you think it was weird the zombies never get to you?" 

"No! We still lose people, just out in the woods. Zombies don’t come this far east any more." 

That was wrong. She'd never seen zombies avoid anything on purpose. She'd watched them set alight, watched them fall from buildings. It didn't make sense. What could they have found to keep Mistral so well protected? What hadn't they shared that could have saved Mountain Glenn?  

"What's in the woods?" Blake asked. 

"I don't know. These super-fast zombies that scream and run at you started showing up a few months ago." 

"Sprinters?" 

"Oh, that's way cooler! We call them runners." 

They skidded to a stop. Up close the house seemed far less impressive. Like everything else, its grandeur had diminished; its once imposing stature bore cracks, and mould seeped over the door's wood, rendering it vulnerable. Sun didn't bother to knock. He swung it open, and they stepped inside.

A greying figure more hair than man blinked his surprise at them from where he sat on his plush sofa, sipping from a china cup. His eyes drifted from Sun, to Nora, to Ren, to them, and then that surprise morphed into something like horror, instead.

“Oh. Good afternoon-”

“Where’s my sister?”

His jaw clamped shut.

“I- don’t even know who you are, miss-”

“Save it.” Blake stormed her way forwards, put her hand on the sofa’s back and leaned over Mistral’s leader with murder in her eyes. “We know you’re up to something. No contact? No zombies? Tell us what’s going on. Tell us where our friends are, _ _now.__ ”

Lionheart gulped, silent plea tattooed on his face. Sun crossed his arms and shook his head.

For some reason, Ruby expected it to be difficult. The man’s already shaken exterior showed signs of tear, cracks in his expression betraying his secrets. She felt her heart in the pit of her stomach. Something really  _ _was__ wrong with Mistral, and Yang and Qrow and Mercury weren’t there, and if they weren’t there…

“ _ _Where are they?__ ”

“I knew this would happen,” he said. Blake stepped back and he stood, his shoulders hunched. Though he was a giant of a man, Lionheart looked so small stood surrounded by them, and shivers passed up and down his spine, voice no louder than a whisper. “There’s no hiding it now. The deal’s off. All of us are doomed.”

“Whatever's wrong, we can help. Just tell us what you mean.”

He did.

He told them about the scientists that arrived in the dead of night, that came with a dead-eyed woman on a leash and terrified him. He told them of the way she responded to their commands, how she’d do anything from hurting him to slitting her own wrist without hesitation. He told them about Salem, about her madness, about her experiments and her brainwashed zombies and the things that she asked of him. He told them about the deal that spared Mistral’s residents from those experiments, that kept the zombies from their gates, just so long as he never told a soul, just so long as he was willing to send one or two scouts their way whenever they called.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t have a choice.”

The room slipped into a stunned silence. Ruby didn’t know she could be simultaneously sympathetic and disgusted, but both emotions filled her equally as she looked at the shaken man who’d sent his friends to their deaths for the many. How could he? She didn’t want to think about what he’d done. She didn’t want to think about what she would have done if Salem had asked her, either. All she wanted was her family.

“You talked to General Ironwood on the radio. Yang, Qrow, and Mercury were supposed to come here.”

“I told Salem,” he confessed, already defeated. “I told her they were looking for her. I told her you had a cure. You have to understand… I wanted to keep everyone safe.”

Ruby cut through Weiss’s indignant huff, aborted Nora’s shout of protest. “Then help us.” Emerald shifted at her side, watching her intently. “Where can we find them?”

With nothing else to lose, he told them the way.

 

* * *

 

__You'_ _ __re not exactly stealthy, firecracker._ _

Qrow hadn’t been wrong. She hardly dared to breathe, already anxious of the too-loud heartbeat that thumped, thumped, thumped with her heavy footed steps. Through their journey inside she already knew that the house was nothing impressive, a recluse’s home in the woods hidden from the village on the hilltop just a few hours away. There were no turns to be lost by, no surprises to jump from its well-lit corners. She’d be okay.   

Qrow and Mercury wouldn’t.

She swallowed and ignored it.

Final remnants of hope had betrayed her into believing there’d be something for her to grab, a loaded gun, medical tools, something more than delicate ornaments and bookshelf knick-knacks. It had to all be upstairs, but with their luck she couldn’t risk it, and placated herself instead with taking a colourful lighter from the fireplace. Just having something in her pocket with the power to hurt eased her nerves significantly. And if everything went wrong, at least she could come back and burn it all to the fucking ground.

Nobody disturbed her as she reached the front door, sounds of movement upstairs reassuring. The handle clicked and she cringed at the sound, held her breath and waited. Nothing.

When she pulled it open, she was met with broad shoulders.

Gunshots sounded off to the north just as she clasped her hand over her lips to mute her gasp. Hazel lifted his head where he stood a few short paces away, then made his way down the porch’s steps and searched for its source.

Yang sprinted past him, their only chance.

She ran towards the bangs until her legs burned, until her heart felt ready to explode, until her panting could be heard above the rustle of leaves, the late summer breeze gentle and persistent. She fell in the dirt and buried her face in her knees pulled up to her chest and took deep, steadying breaths. There was no sense in crying over it, but still, the magnitude of her situation weighed heavily on her, and she needed just a moment to gather herself and figure out what to do next.

Daylight was fading, and so when the sprinters screamed she could only guess their direction. Exhaustion and hunger fought against her as she pushed herself up again, stumbling, all too aware of her shortcomings when it came to the tireless monsters she had no choice but to face. There was nowhere left to hide, nowhere left to run, and then she saw them rushing through the trees to her, and she stood and idly thought that this was either going to be an amazing story one day, or that she was going to die.

She swayed to her left. The quicker of the two skidded past her, slammed into the tree and fell back, and she climbed atop of it and slammed its head into the ground once, twice, three times until its gore seeped into the dirt - she rose again, ready for the second, but to her surprise it lay already still just a few feet ahead of her.

She didn’t understand.

But from the bushes the explanation emerged, with ratty hair and deep red eyes. Maybe she had died. She’d only seen them before in photographs, but even so, it was clear enough who looked back at her. Familiar yet alien.

“What are you doing here?”

Raven had the decency to echo her surprise. With her gun still trained on her daughter, it was clear she’d thought Yang nothing more than another zombie - or at least, that’s what Yang hoped.

“Is Qrow alive?”

In her dreamlike confusion, Yang could only think to answer. “He’s in the house.”

Raven lowered her weapon, and tossed it at her feet.

 

* * *

 

For once, Watts surprised him - the strength with which he hauled Mercury up was not something he would have expected from someone with his slight frame. Clearly, Yang’s escape had rubbed him the wrong way.

“How did she get out?”

“Gee, I don’t know. Through the front door? WTCH Labs __really__  went downhill, huh?”

He braced for an impact that didn’t come. Watts’s face and disgusting moustache were just inches away from his, burning with frustration, or fear. That didn't bother him. Hits, he could take. But his blood ran cold when he heard someone new speak, sickly sweet.

Salem stood outside. The months had not been kind to her. No satisfaction had come with their grim achievements - instead she looked haggard, manic, like none of it was enough. It only made her more terrifying.  

“Mercury, Mercury, Mercury,” she chided. Watts took one look at her and released him, let him fall back to the ground. “Whatever happened to your friends?”

“Like you care.”

False concern came over her as she made her slow approach. “Of course I care,” Salem lied. “Little Neo was the first step to unlocking a corpse’s full capabilities. I imagine she didn’t last long without our help. Tell me - did she lose her mind, or did the decay set in first?”

He glared, silent. Salem smiled.

“It’s fortunate we were able to replicate those results in Cinder. And while Tyrian’s sacrifice lead to some… unforeseen circumstances… it was reassuring to know at least __some__ of those we saved remained loyal to our cause.”

“You were using us!”

“You would have died in a warm bed with full stomachs.”

There was no sense in arguing. That she’d thought enough about them to even try and justify her actions was already more than he’d anticipated.

“Dr. Watts. Would you bring subject 79?”

He didn’t like the smug that returned to Watts before he left.

Salem didn’t stoop to speak to him. She looked down her nose, perfectly poised. “Your escape came at a most inopportune moment. Poor Cinder needed our constant supervision if she was to make it through her final tests. Do not think you got the better of us.”

A zombie followed behind Watts. Her skin was dark and greying, blonde hair stark against it, and she was small and non-threatening except for the way in which she stopped and waited, her dead eyes staring sightlessly into the room. Another obedient. He already knew he wasn’t getting out of that house alive, and in a way, he’d come to terms with it. The thought of being turned into another one of Salem's mindless servants filled him with a dread he hadn't felt in years.

“It seems you won’t be useful to us after all. Hazel is searching for your friend in the forest. I doubt she will make it far. Once that's done with… I think we’ll make a trip to Atlas. I hear you have something that could prove quite problematic for us, and you know how much I detest being at a disadvantage.” Another smile curled her lips, worse than the last. “But, before that… 79. Kill them.”

In a whirl he was on his back, and he pressed his forearm firm against the obedient’s throat as her jaw snapped above him. Laughter followed the scientists from the room. Even above her growls he heard the click of the lock, and he knew there was no escape, but damn it, he’d been following orders all his life, and he’d die before becoming Salem’s eternal slave.

His one remaining leg hooked around the chair, and he yanked it to within arms reach. With one big __push__ he freed himself just long enough, put the chair between them, heard the bone-chilling __crunch__ of teeth on wood chomping, chomping, chomping unfeelingly to get to him. Her head made it through the gaps between the legs, so he twisted it sharply and threw her back, and the chair snapped apart, and he held one jagged leg in his hand and forced himself up and held onto the drawers behind him because the move hadn’t broken her damn neck.

She launched herself and took him down before he was up, his balance too shaky to resist. Another sickening __crunch__ deafened him, pain blinding him, and his head was spinning, and he felt his strength leaving as he made a desperate swing for the zombie’s face and connected.

She fell into Qrow.

Her teeth split the skin of his throat. He hadn’t meant to do it. With the spots that clouded his vision he could hardly see, let alone aim. Propped against the wall he swung again, and he knocked the zombie off her feet, and he followed her down. Again and again he bought the wood into her skull, until it caved in, until she was put out of her misery. Then all that was left was to sit over her body and catch his breath.

_Qrow_.

Blood painted the white pillow red, and Qrow hadn’t moved an inch. His chest was still, his eyes gently closed. Relaxed. Mercury kept the chair leg in his hand, but he wasn’t sure he’d need it. Qrow had taken his last breath before Watts had opened the door.

It was over, but still his heartbeat quickened, his breaths hastened. When he touched the back of his head, he felt it was hot and wet. Nausea overpowered him; he clasped his hand over his mouth to keep it down. It had been a long time since he’d had his last panic attack, but with his head oozing blood with every throb of pain, but with two corpses rotting beside him in that tiny, locked room, it felt as good a time as any to relive it.

 

* * *

 

Darkness fell before they'd fully relayed Lionheart's mistakes to Mistral's horrified residents. They deserved to know, and there was no sense embarking into the woods alone. When Ruby asked who would help, a splatter of hands shot high into the air, from people who'd lost friends to missions there, from people who wanted to make things right. Like her. Sun gathered his friends. Nora and Ren made their way through the crowd that had once been so much larger. And when they had enough, they made their way back down the hill, and they lit their flashlights and torches, and they shared out Lionheart's long-hidden stash of radios between them.

"Make sure to check in every thirty minutes," Ruby reminded the groups that split off into the trees. Emerald couldn't stop staring at her. She always knew exactly what to do, exactly how to get it done, and nobody ever had to die for it.  _How_? Ruby met her eyes and flashed a tight smile, and there was a time and a place to figure her girlfriend out, but for now, they had a rescue to make.

In the woods, they heard screams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... it's been very much back and forth whether I'd actually kill Qrow off since I started planning over a year ago. It's weird, because I hate when main characters get killed off for seemingly no reason, but in this case I'd envisioned it this way for so long that it felt wrong not to (literally, the last scene with Mercury and Qrow was a dream I had when I was still writing Morals). I'm a massive hypocrite. I know there's a fair few Qrow fans reading this fic... and I'm sorry! I promise to make it up to you with some nice Qrow fics in the New Year.
> 
> Until then, have a great Christmas everyone!


	27. The Woods

Yang walked in Raven’s footsteps, studying the back of her in the fading evening light. Long thick hair, dark as Yang’s was bright, Raven had the same height and build, the same purposeful walk. She offered no words of explanation, yet in her daze Yang found herself complying. Of everything that had happened, she had expected this the least.

Breaking their silence, Yang asked, “Is this real?”

Raven glanced in her direction.

Years ago, Yang might have wanted this. To see the woman who birthed her. To ask the pointless, childish questions that lingered no matter how old she grew. When she did imagine their reunion, she imagined every emotion at once flowing through her like electricity, hair stood on end as she screamed and cried and fought to understand, but it was nothing like that. As Yang listened to Raven’s silence, she realised she didn’t feel a thing towards the stranger that shared her DNA. Suddenly the __why’s__ were meaningless. All that mattered now was saving the people she cared about, and if Raven could help with that, she wouldn’t put up a fight.

Raven looked away.

Yang wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

With a gun in her hand she was almost renewed. When the shock settled she passed her estranged mother and took the lead, following the path she’d sprinted down only moments ago - a path Raven seemed to know without her help, but she wouldn’t ask, too stubborn to confess intrigue.

“Yang…”

There it was. “What?”

Her fingers locked around her shoulder and forced her down into the bushes. A protest died in Yang’s throat as she heard a distant rustle, the crunch of a twig beneath heavy boot-fall. Through the gaps in the leaves she saw Hazel and couldn’t believe she’d missed him, a giant in the woods making no effort to disguise himself in his urgency to find her. He moved from sight, but they waited for the woods to still again before making any movements.

Yang brushed the hand off and rose abruptly to her feet, cheeks hot, composure wavering. A stupid mistake. If she’d been alone, it would have been her end.

“I don’t need your help.”

Raven scoffed. “You have no idea.”

Head rush accompanied her sudden movement, and when she swayed she felt Raven move closer. It was a strange kind of concern, equal parts anxious and irritated, and Yang hated it - they pushed forwards, and Yang forced the emotion that prickled in her throat and eyes away. __Deal with the matter at hand.__ “They know I got out. They’ll have zombies waiting for us - they can control them.”

“I know.”

“Why are you even here!?” It was a whisper of a shout; Raven stopped, turned abruptly on her heel to face her. Yang had always imagined her taller, but their glare was level, her eyes familiar - her uncle’s, but harsher. He was waiting for her. That stung enough to bring her back to her senses.

“Let’s just go.”

The lights were on, signalling their location despite the fallen darkness. Figures flitted over the top floor; she counted just two of them, exiting and entering and exiting the room again. That was good. Two verses two. Never mind the zombies. Salem couldn’t command them from beyond the grave, and even if she could, deep down Yang always knew there wouldn’t be enough time to make it to Mistral for reinforcements, definitely not now. Qrow and Mercury were waiting. Some risks were necessary.

“What do I need to know?” Raven asked.

Her fist curled. Through clenched teeth, she released a breath. “It’s a straight run from the door to Qrow and Mercury. All the lab stuff’s upstairs. We saw three of the scientists, and Watts had ten obedients with him, but I don’t know where they keep them. Nine,” she corrected herself. “Qrow killed one before he got shot.”

Surprise moved her face so briefly Yang was sure she’d hallucinated it. “How bad is it?”

Yang worried her lip. Raven understood.

“Be read-”

This time Yang heard it first, barely audible amongst the woods natural creaking, an exhale of air, hushed by the night’s breeze - she whipped around, found it so close she didn’t need to move her gun to shoot it dead, only needed to pull the trigger. In the silent woods the crack was deafening; she turned back, looked up and saw the second floor’s abrupt plunge into darkness. Raven left her side at once.

A shoulder to the old rotten door and it went down easily. Raven stumbled into the pitch black with Yang at her heels. She didn’t know the layout to find the light switch, but she didn’t have to. A crackling heat had started to spread, flames creeping across the landing, illuminating the way. It was a choice between chasing them down and saving her family, the easiest one she’d ever made.

She knew how to turn on the light in the back room. She flipped the switch.

 

* * *

 

Decaying flesh collided with Ruby, woods crawling with living dead. She kicked it back; Weiss made her shot. The body crumpled. It was chaos, but routine.

“Thanks,” Ruby said. Weiss nodded.

She’d comb the woods tree by tree to find Yang, Qrow, and Mercury, but it spanned further than she’d imagined. The radio had crackled on five times with confirmation of each group’s lack of progress - that was two and a half hours, and still only the hill stood in plain sight. On cue the lump in her pocket buzzed, Sun’s distorted voice: “Nothing yet.”

Three hours.

But then a bang rang out from the west. They halted, looked at each other. There was no telling whether it was them or __them.__ Ruby looked around her, at the trees, trees, and more trees. It was all they had to go on.

 

* * *

 

So much blood had stained their prison. The floorboards. The walls. The furniture. Most of it spread from Qrow’s throat. Yang didn’t need to move any closer to know what had happened - the remnants of zombie smeared across the floor told her enough. She followed them to Mercury, curled in the corner, immobile, and it covered him, too, until she couldn’t tell whose blood was whose. Her mind was blank. She could only feel her heart in her throat, so heavy it hurt.  

Raven rushed to Qrow, so Yang dropped to her knees, lifted Mercury’s head to look him in the eyes. Still warm. Shallow breaths tickled her face. She realised he was unconscious, not dead, and let out a sob of relief.

“Hey. __Hey,__ Merc.”

His eyelids twitched. She kissed his forehead clumsily, rubbed her thumb against his cheek like it’d bring the life back to him.

“Hey, come on.”

He grimaced. Yang traced her hand up his body, chest to shoulders to the back of his head. __There__. Damp stuck his hair together, painted the grey red. She took a sharp breath. “Shit, Merc. __Shit.__  how long were you out?” Her voice cracked somewhere in the middle; behind her Raven slammed her hand into the dresser, and confirmed the worst.

“Sorry,” Mercury mumbled.

Smoke seeped from the floor above to dry out her wet eyes, and she couldn’t shut out what was happening, not this time, because she could see it plain as day: that was her uncle, dead. Another voice she’d never hear again, another stupid argument she’d never have again, and shit, she loved him like a dad, and now he was hanging lifeless from Raven’s shoulder as she hoisted him up and through the door. Like he weighed nothing.

“Can you walk?” Yang tried to ask, but her voice had failed to come back together, croaked and distorted. Mercury seemed to get it, shrugged his shoulders and took hold of hers to struggle to stand - Yang dipped under his weight but steadied herself, tired and hurt, and it wasn’t over yet. They lay the boys in the grass out of range of the spreading flames and she sat between them, fingers interlocked with Mercury’s, eyes on the building as the roof began to flake and collapse. Smoke and sparks rose into the sky and they’d failed. They hadn’t even found what they were looking for.

Raven didn’t rest. Fury made her as dangerous as the fire. One more look at her dead brother and she sped to the back of the building, and vanished into the darkness.

Yang called her name but silenced herself quickly - the fire was already enough of a beacon to the obedients she was sure hunted them, and she hadn’t expected her to stay anyway. They had to run, but she couldn’t drag Mercury any further or even think about leaving Qrow, so she held her gun tight and stayed.

 

* * *

 

The sky was red with fire and ash, like that night at Beacon, like the time before that. A memory of pain throbbed in her shoulder, and Ruby didn’t know if it was good news or bad, but this time they ran to it, heard their friends on the radio do the same.

Not just them. Their path was thick with corpses, and every bullet summoned more. “This is way more than they had at the labs,” Emerald commented through panting breaths, the sheer stress of remaining so alert catching up with her. “They’ve been busy.”

Blake cleaned her knife on her jacket. “Busy slaughtering the people of Mistral.”

“I dread to think how many of these are familiar faces. This has to be hard for them.”

Weiss was right, but nobody had complained. So many of them were strangers willing to risk their lives to help, to help them find their friends, to get revenge on those who’d taken their own, and if they could just manufacture a vaccine, maybe the world wouldn’t have to end after all. They were a glimmer of hope.

Smoke close enough to line her throat, Ruby saw them - a horde chasing flames. Another bang. A zombie fell to its knees, then collapsed face down in the dirt. Orange lit up two figures in the dark, a flash of gold, a glint of metal in her hand.

“Yang!”

Every head turned towards her voice. Good. Ruby and her team tore through them, blasted them away, carved a path towards her sister and the body she guarded. __Get to them. Get them somewhere safe.__ The fire would keep the zombies distracted, she hoped, if they could just conceal themselves.

It was Mercury on the ground, skin a worrying grey; Emerald slid to her knees and moved his head side to side, for once unashamed in her concern for him. And Yang was crying. Clean streaks on her dirty cheeks shone in the flickering light, her eyes sore and red, lip trembling as she met Ruby’s eyes.

Oh.

Another body lay a few feet away.

__Oh._ _

“I’m sorry.” Ruby stared at the corpse, and everything else was muted. “I had to leave them. I had to get help. I took too long, I didn’t-”

“Uncle Qrow…”

“Ruby.” Weiss grabbed her by her shoulders, her own eyes glistening. “I know this is hard. But we have to get them out of here before more come.”

She heard the words but couldn’t process them, couldn’t stop staring, couldn’t stop herself from whimpering, “Oh, no.”

“We’re __not__ leaving him!” Yang said.

“We’ll come back for him,” Blake promised. “We can’t carry him and get you and Mercury out of here. The zombies won’t touch him. I’m so sorry.”

She was right. Her surroundings filed in, thick and murky as an oil painting; Emerald helped Mercury to his feet - __foot -__ and Blake helped, one hand on him, one hand on Yang, and Weiss kept her arm around Ruby’s shoulder, calming the shakes that racked her.

“They couldn’t come with me.” Ruby looked at Yang, heart breaking for her. “Watts shot Qrow, and he couldn’t even stay awake - they took Merc’s leg. I found- god, Raven was here-”

“She came to Atlas with your father.”

“He’s alive?” Yang sniffed, and dried her cheeks. Weiss nodded, smiling tentatively.

As they moved from the zombie’s path, Ruby asked, “Where is she now?”

Yang shrugged, still pressed close to Mercury though she was no longer supporting him. Whatever Ruby was going through, Yang was dealing with tenfold - one look at the despair that paled her face and she knew that  this time she’d have to be the one to take control, to pick up the pieces.

“She probably ran after them. We didn’t see them, but they didn’t leave past us.”

“Raven can’t handle them alone,” Emerald said.

“They took stuff with them.” Mercury’s voice was quiet, almost slurred. She was no doctor, but she knew that wasn’t good. “Probably stuff you want.”

Weiss said, “Two of us are in no condition to fight zombies, never mind __intelligence__.”

“If you’re going to kill them, I’m coming with you.” Behind Yang the fire loomed, roared, the house crumbling in on itself, its charcoal skeleton stood ominously over Qrow’s corpse.

“I’ll look after Mercury. Your friends should be here soon.”

Ruby couldn’t turn Yang down - she nodded at Emerald, looked at the doubt on Weiss and Blake’s faces, but knew they wouldn’t resist either. Qrow was dead, the people responsible within reach if they hurried. It didn’t feel like revenge. It felt like justice. When their team split up Yang pressed her lips to Mercury’s cheek, squeezed Emerald’s hand and told her something Ruby couldn’t hear. She thought of saying something to Emerald too, but everything felt too close to __goodbye,__ and she couldn’t conceive losing anyone else even with the threat so real.

No. Ruby wouldn’t lose anyone else. This was the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for waiting! Raven has definitely overtaken Emerald as the most difficult character to write, but I hope this is okay anyway. We're so close to the end - thanks for sticking with me (for a full year almost!?)


	28. No Regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you do anything, CHECK MY NEW ICON by the wonderful [Adox](http://fanaticalparadox.tumblr.com) who is more or less the official illustrator of In Ruin at this point. Check their blog for gorgeous art of all the main characters (and more!)

Mercury’s drowsiness made him painfully unhelpful, Emerald more dragging than supporting him as they moved from the open path. The fire was still close enough to make her sweat, but she needed her back against something - the little stone and wood structure, maybe once a shed, did just fine. She unhooked his arm from around her shoulders and helped him to the ground, then slid to sit beside him. From where they sat they could watch the fire consume the lab, watched as it tore down its roof and claimed its tiles, as the smoke obscure the moon and stars.

“At least they won’t be able to miss us,” she said. The search parties could probably see them all the way from Mistral.

Mercury didn’t respond.

She moved to her knees in the dirt and turned him to the light, his dark bags more prominent, a sprinkling of blood dusting his face like freckles. Eyes closed. She pushed two fingers into his neck, heart plummeting. There was a beat. Two. Three. Steady enough. He opened his bloodshot eyes and grinned, and she pinched his arm hard enough to make him yelp, shoved him back into the broken shed.

“You’re such a __dick.__ ”

Same old Mercury - whatever blow to the head hadn’t knocked that out of him. As much of an asshole as he was, though, his fragility worried her, kept her on edge. If any zombies sniffed them out above the smoke she’d be fighting them alone. It had been a long time since she’d needed to do anything like that. He laughed weakly, shifted with discomfort. A wince creased his nose, still misshapen from Yang’s fist. She’d have to protect him, too, her idiot best friend.

When his amusement died down it might have been serene if not for the distant sounds of zombie screams, of echoing gunshots. They were right; the zombies that passed by were more enamoured with the flames than them, but those who went further, who followed Ruby and her friends’ footsteps… they made her uneasy. All the fires in the world wouldn’t light up a life without Ruby.

Through unfocused eyes Mercury watched them too. He probably felt the same. All they could do was wait.

 

* * *

 

Once she’d felt a strange joy in killing zombies - there was an art to it, a rush to it, a plan and a reason and a surge of satisfaction in making the world a safer place.

Ruby couldn’t feel that any more.

In it’s place something painful took hold. Every rotten face was someone’s loss, someone’s mother, father, uncle, sister, someone beyond saving. On some level she’d always known it, but now it rose to the surface, agonisingly raw. Somebody had caused this. Somebody was keeping them from making things right. Ruby didn’t feel sad about it, didn’t feel tears sting at her eyes like Yang, so determined but broken down by everything she’d been through. No.

She was angry.

It channelled into every slice and every shot; blood rained down on them, painted the leaves red before their time. Just like Lionheart had said, the zombies came to them as if it were their soul purpose in death, sniffing them out amidst the smoke like loyal dogs. She was angry because as fast as they were, the zombies slowed them down, and the woods were vast enough that there was no way of knowing which direction Salem had taken, dark enough that they couldn’t follow the tracks. How was it fair for them to get away?

A grunt of frustration and she embedded her knife in a zombie’s skull, its deep __thunk__ resonating in her chest, sinking to her stomach where it bubbled with nausea. God, she didn’t want to be there. She didn’t want to be doing this over and over again for the rest of her life.

Something touched her arm and she recoiled in shock, expected to see a zombie. It was Weiss, brimming with sympathy. That’s what did it; seeing her icy friend so wrought with sadness for them.

“It’s not fair.” Ruby’s voice trembled. Weiss enveloped her in a hug. She realised the fighting around them had stopped - the last wave of zombies lay dead at their feet. It wasn’t their fault. They didn’t deserve to die twice.

“It isn’t,” Weiss agreed.

Now the groaning had died it was easy to hear the emptiness that surrounded them; the howl of wind through trees, the crackle of fire that had already begun to creep from its source, chasing them inwards. She closed her eyes and leant into Weiss’s shoulder, felt another arm wrap around them, then two more. She could hear her friends’ heavy panting, their hoarse breaths, their sniffles.

And somewhere further, she heard a voice.

 

* * *

 

Sporadically Emerald spoke at Mercury, prodded his arm, kicked his remaining leg to keep him with her. His slumping head strained upright; he shot her a pleading look. Emerald felt no guilt. If he was out he’d be out for the fight, and she at least needed him conscious enough to drag himself to safety if it came to it. She wasn’t ready to lose him.

She pushed the switch on her radio. “How much longer?”

“Better be soon. What are they doing, following the wrong fire?”

She waved her hand at Mercury dismissively, as if they might overhear. The long silence told her it had been unnecessary. Emerald rose to her feet, cautiously checked her surroundings. She’d always been good at finding her way around in the dark; that night was no exception. Between two trunks she thought she saw a figure standing, but the buzz of her radio drew her attention away.

“Stragglers coming your way,” came Sun’s breathless voice. “Trying to get what we can.”

The figure had gone. Emerald scowled. “Hurry it up.” Then, quieter: “Merc’s not doing so good.”

“Got it. Be with you ASA-”

Silence again. Emerald rubbed the bridge of her nose, turned back to Mercury on the floor. “Hey, I saw something in the trees. Keep talking to me while I check it out.”

“I don’t wanna talk about anything, Em.”

“Then count.”

There was a long pause that demonstrated just what he thought of her order, but he had a habit of doing what he was told. __1, 2, 3, 4…__

Emerald stepped away from the flames and into the crisp shadows. She wouldn’t go far. If she could kill it with her knife she would, to save the ammunition in case they became overwhelmed. __11, 12, 13, 14…__ Mercury was still in her line of sight if she looked over her shoulder, and he watched her movements carefully as he could with stars in his eyes as if he could do anything should something go wrong.

__16, 17, 18, 19…__  she saw the back of it, tall and emaciated, long black hair in knots and tangles down its back. Definitely a zombie. It stood twitching, confused, white coat stained with dirt and burned here and there, an escapee from the house crumbling behind them. Emerald furrowed her brow, something familiar refusing to register.

__Oh._ _

 

* * *

 

“Did you think you were being stealthy?”

Her voice was soft, sweet as honey.

“I wasn’t trying to be.”

Raven’s was heavier. Poisonous. She spat out her words like they burned her. Two obedients held her arms firm against her sides. She’d given up struggling; now she stared daggers at the woman ahead of her, so sharp she had to feel the cut of them.

“Salem, if I may…”

“You may not.” Salem shut Watts down in an instant. He pulled the binders in his hands closer to his chest, a flash of irritation melting quickly into disinterest. Ruby watched from the shadows crouched low in the bushes, her sister’s arm pressed against hers. They hardly dared to breathe.

“Why couldn’t you just follow my rules like the rest of your little party? You would have been such an asset. You would have been so… comfortable.”

“Until the day you decided to turn me into one of _ _them__ ,” Raven snapped, pulling against the zombies that bound her.

“I heard they died without your guidance. Such a shame.”

“I don’t care! They were stupid and weak for believing in you.”

The raiders. Somehow it didn’t come as a surprise. Ruby could put two and two together, her dad’s vague warnings to Yang about Raven even before the world had come to an end ringing in her ears. But it wasn’t __how__ she’d expected. There was hurt in Raven’s tone, misery and betrayal and a brilliant anger that kept her standing despite it.

“If they infect me, I swear I’ll tear out your throat before you can even think an order.”

Salem smiled.

“We have to do something,” Ruby breathed out, too quiet to be a whisper. Salem looked close to finished with her taunting speech, and Ruby doubted Raven would last long once it was done. The angle was wrong, and even if it wasn’t, they’d have to time their shots perfectly to free her.

Just an inch forwards and a twig’s snap echoed over the clearing. __Shit.__ Watts looked straight at them; she ducked down low.

“Arthur. Make sure we’re not interrupted.”

 

* * *

 

“Em?”

Suddenly her breath stuttered painfully from her lungs, burning her throat at the sound of Mercury’s voice, and who knew how long she’d held it for. The figure in front of her turned abruptly towards the sound, confirming what she already knew: once smart and beautiful, Cinder stood before her a remnant of her former self, absent from her body, staring emptily into Emerald.

“Em. What is it?”

God, if they’d just got her her in the truck… Emerald’s whole body trembled at the sight, guilt rooting her to the ground. Like Neo she seemed an earlier obedient prototype, confused and distant, blinking at her as if trying to process some far-off memory.

“Cinder. It’s me, Emerald. Can… can you speak?”

Cinder’s head clicked to its side. Her movements were unnatural, puppet-like. Slowly she approached, feet dragging through the dirt. Emerald didn’t move.

“Shit. Em, listen to me…”

Whatever he said wasn’t registering. This was all her fault. How could Cinder have known what Salem planned to do to them and not see this coming? Had she? Her heart pounded, her head spun. Cinder continued to drag herself forwards without any urgency. Even now, it was all too easy to trust her.

Her gun’s handle sat neatly in her palm without her remembering the movement that brought it there.

Breaths came in shorter pants. There was no way she could… Cinder’s face was monstrous, a vampiric caricature of the one she remembered. She bore her teeth in a hungry snarl, shuffling closer, closer - three feet away.

“Emerald!”

And then she fired.

Maybe it was just her finger slipping over any conscious decision. The sound of her name had startled her, made her move without thinking. Even in death, Cinder exuded grace: as the bullet tore through her skull she rocked backwards, body rigid before it hit the floor. It couldn’t be called peaceful, not with all the insides that seeped from her forehead. Emerald stared, and stared, and stared.

She didn’t know how long it took her to fully understand the silence that followed. That Mercury had stopped counting.  

Something hunched over him, though through her blurred vision it was difficult to determine what. Like a zombie herself she stumbled forwards to fight it off, but it whipped around to her, holding its empty hands up.

“Emerald. I won’t hurt him,” Hazel said. Her gun was pointed at him. Even she couldn’t tell if she would shoot again, but she wanted to more than anything, just for one inch of revenge.

“Get __away__ from him.”

“It’s not safe here.”

“You did this.”

“I want to help.” He spoke carefully, taking short steps towards her. “Mistral has doctors. You can’t take him that far alone.”

“Hey! Emerald!”

Finally, __finally,__ the people of Mistral arrived and stood by her side, a firm hand squeezing her shoulder. Sun grinned at her, saw the expression on her face, followed her line of sight to Hazel standing over Mercury, stationary on the ground. He looked at the gun, pieced it together. “Wait, hold on a second-”

“I worked with Salem,” Hazel volunteered. “I know how this infection works. If you’re looking to make things right, I can help you, as long as I’m alive.”

“You’re just trying to save your skin!”

Even as she said it she knew that she was wrong, that she was letting her grief control her. Hazel had always been different to the others, hesitant in the things that they did. She recalled the way his nose scrunched in distaste at Salem’s suggestions, and even if she didn’t, how could they turn him down? Another hand touched hers, lowered her gun: Nora stared up at her pleadingly.

“He might be right. If everything’s lost in the fire…”

She thought of what Ruby would say.

Her gun fell to the ground and she followed after it, crashing to her knees and sobbing until her eyes dried out.

 

* * *

  

Yang never took her eyes off him as he lowered his books and notes, just whispered “ _ _Knife,”__ and reached blindly backwards, patting at her friends until someone placed the cool steel in her hand. Watts came closer, squinting in the dark, fingers squeezing at the handle of his gun almost anxiously. Good. The nerves on his face were a welcome change.  

Finally, he was close enough.

She launched herself from the bushes and drove the knife through his throat. Instantly she understood how Mercury could kill without regret, how he could laugh and joke about it with Emerald, because the fear in his eyes made her want to burst into song. He was the reason nobody would ever call her __firecracker__ again. She twisted the knife and pulled free, kicked him into the ground as he spluttered and gasped for a breath that wouldn’t come. There was blood on her knife and her hands and her shirt and for once, she couldn’t be happier.

Two bangs drew her attention away from his misery and back to the scene before them: one obedient lay dead, the other chomping aimlessly at Raven as she wrestled it away. Another shot from Ruby and it was down, and all that remained was Salem. Her nostrils flared for just a second, her poise dislodged. With all their weapons trained on her, she had the audacity to chuckle.

“It’s far too late to fix this. My experiments will help us control them.”

“They’re __people.__ ” Ruby took a dangerous step towards her, filling Yang with dread. How many more waited to protect their master near by? “We shouldn’t be controlling them. We should be putting them to rest and stopping this from happening to anyone else!”

“I am making the best of another man’s mistakes. I am not your enemy.”

Her fist clenched, nails digging into her palm painfully around her bloody knife’s handle. Blake and Weiss looked at her, looked at Ruby; Yang turned to Ruby too, knowing she’d do whatever she said. In the end, Ruby always made the right call.  

“You killed my uncle.”

__Always._ _

Salem died in surprise. Like she’d actually thought she might manipulate them. Like she thought she knew she’d get out of it alive. When she fell Watts was still spluttering, grasping at dirt to dull his pain, and if he was aware of anything, it was that it was all over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> epilogue?


	29. Epilogue

Frost bit the grass and bleached it a glittering white, like glass under cold, stark sunlight. She rubbed her hands together and blew through the knit of her gloves, but even her breath was iced, a cloud of it hanging in the air for seconds after she gave up and accepted she wouldn’t be warm so close to January, not for as long as she sat at the foot of his grave.

It wasn’t much. Stones in the dirt marked the spots they’d laid their departed to rest. Some had nothing beneath them, but they bore the names of those they’d lost over the course of the six years since the outbreak had begun. Amber, Tukson, Caer, Penny, Roman, Neo, Jaune, Pyrrha. Cinder. Summer. Qrow. Ruby sighed at the name and hugged her knees to her chest. The pain had dulled somewhat, five months enough to move back to some semblance of normality, but Ruby still found herself outside of Atlas’s gates every day, to sit and to look at their names and remember them. Maybe she was guilty that it hurt less now, that the world had calmed without them. It didn’t mean that she missed them any less.

Sometimes she spoke to them, but today she was quiet. They already knew about the first trials of vaccine, how they were watching and waiting to see how things progressed. They knew that everyone was okay, that her dad was happy to have them home, that Raven came back now and then, that Yang was herself again, was better than ever before. They knew that the days without them moved quickly, how strange it was that they were already so far in the past. But even with nothing to say, she just liked the thought of keeping them company.

A hand fell softly onto her shoulders and she flinched, unprepared for contact when her surroundings lay so silent. It was Yang, of course, who sat cross legged on the floor beside her, intertwined their fingers together and joined her in contemplation.

“How’s he doing?” she asked.

“Okay. We didn’t talk much today.”

Yang nodded, placed her head on top of Ruby’s. “What about mom?”

“She said you’ve got to stop bullying me and Em.”

She laughed. It was stupid, but Yang never questioned her conversations with the dead.

“I saw her when me and dad were fixing the windows earlier. She’s looking for you. I told her you’d be here, but she’s still all awkward about interrupting you or whatever.”

“She’s dumb. I don’t mind.”

“Well, you try and tell her.”

Ruby stood up and brushed the dirt from her coat, wrapped her arms around her chest. It was too cold to stay outside anyway, and she knew her friends and family wouldn’t bemoan her early departure. She’d expected Yang to follow, but she stayed a while, looking at the stones while Ruby stood behind.

“You want me to go on ahead?” Ruby asked.

“Nah,” she replied quickly. “I’ve gotta talk to Merc anyway.”

“You’re being so weird about it.”

“I just don’t want him to make it a big deal.”

“He won’t.”

Yang gave her a look of doubt, and Ruby offered a hand to help her to her feet with a gentle smile. The stones in content straight lines watched them return to the safety of Atlas’s walls.

 

* * *

 

His crutches clunked noisily over the tiled laboratory floors, slowing him a few paces behind Emerald, a plate in both her hands. Sandwiches. Someone at Atlas actually took the time to bake bread, now, once a day. There were crops on the east side, struggling in the winter chill but pushing through nonetheless, and easier hunting since Mistral helped to clear the woods of the dead. He hadn’t eaten so well in his normal life, but he’d long since stopped dwelling on that injustice. His life now, his life in the apocalypse, was pretty good… minus a few small details.

With her foot Emerald held the door open for him to hobble inside first. He threw himself onto his bed and let the crutches clatter to the ground, grinned up at his best friend and the irritation she wore. “You gonna feed me too?”

“Get fucked,” she said, dropping the plate into his lap. He couldn’t help his disability, but he’d sure as hell take every laugh it could give him.

As he held his sandwich to his mouth Yang invited herself in and sat beside him comfortably, snatched it from his hands before he could protest and took the first bite. He glowered at her while Emerald snorted, but when he tore his eyes away to shoot a warning glare at her too she was already too busy pressing a chaste kiss to Ruby’s lips to suffer it.

“Ew, guys. PDA much?” Yang agreed. A middle finger was the only response she received, prompting a warm burst of laughter that brightened the room better than any lamp.

“Come on, Em. Let’s leave these __jerks__  alone.”

To her credit, Emerald still shut the door behind her. Yang made herself at home on his bed the moment it clicked closed, laying back and waiting for him to finish his food, only snickering now and then at the pointed looks he gave her. When he put his plate on the ground she held out an arm for him to join her, and he did, flopping down at her side and leeching her heat as she curled herself around him. Her fingers travelled up his side over his t-shirt in gentle circles, calming enough to draw his eyes closed, teetering on the edge of sleep. Lips pressed delicately against his shoulder and neck, and he’d been with her for too long, because he could sense the hesitance there, could feel whatever weighed on her mind.

“Hey, Merc? Can we talk?”

He hummed his consent and she rolled onto her side, propping her head up with her elbow. Her teeth scraped against her lower lip and that tugged his curiosity; he perked an eyebrow and looked back at her, studying her face for answers.

“Shit. Are you pregnant?”

“No!” She barked a laugh, tension depleting. It had been a joke, but still, relief washed over him with the sound of her amusement. “Ugh, no. It’s no big deal, it’s just… it’s about my prosthetic.”

Oh, right. With the vaccine in its testing phase there was time for that now. As long as he’d known her she’d had just one arm - it was strange to picture her any differently, but then he understood better than anyone the need to be whole. He waited, and she sighed, tucked her hair behind her ear as she met his eyes, taking too long to finally say:

“I told them to do yours first.”

Oh.

It made sense. Mercury couldn’t contribute half as much with one leg, and Yang had become an old pro at navigating her life one-handed. Sometimes his immobility drove him mad and she knew it, would leave him be when his mood dropped and rendered him irritable and snappy, but he hadn’t expected her to do anything about it. For a moment he could only look at her, confusion knotting his brows as he tried to understand __why__ when he’d agreed to everything not two years prior just for the chance to walk again. He wouldn’t have given it up for anyone. After all, nobody had ever given up anything for him.

Nobody had ever done anything kind for him.

“I can handle waiting a little longer. I don’t want you to think I don’t think __you__  can, but it’s just… practical, you know?”

But it wasn’t that. Slowly, he’d began to accept it was something much more, and so it was with a grin that he said, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you loved me, blondie.”

And she furrowed her brow, almost flustered as she replied, “Don’t be a dick.”

He grabbed her hip and rolled her back into him before she could turn away, caught her lips with his and wrapped his arms around her. Slowly she relaxed into it, whatever embarrassment she’d felt quickly melting away, and it was so comfortable to be so close to her, his new familiar.  If this was what the rest of his life had in store for him, well, that would be fine.

Head tucked beneath his chin Yang snickered quietly to herself, took a breath to speak.

A slow and steady knock on the door interrupted her, drawing out far longer than necessary.

“I’m coming in,” came Weiss’s voice through the wall. “Please ensure you are __both__ fully clothed. I’m opening the door in ten seconds - ten, nine, eight…”

“We’re dressed, drama queen,” Yang called back. The door slid open, and Weiss entered with faux caution, ready to shield her eyes at a moment’s notice. Mercury sat up, and Yang followed suit. “What’s up?”

“We noticed Nora’s truck on its way to the gates. I thought you’d want to know.”

Mercury’s sphere of care still didn’t pass much further than Yang and Emerald, but Yang decided he was coming with her, and he always was happier following someone else’s lead. Her warmth disappeared quickly as she stood and retrieved his crutches and placed them in his reluctant hands.

He paused in the doorway.

“What were you gonna say? Before Weiss came in.”

With a smile Yang gave a carefree shrug and kissed him again, soft and brief, and that was all the confirmation either of them would ever give.

“Hmm. Can’t remember.”

 

* * *

 

“Why won’t you come to the graveyard?”

The fingers between hers wriggled, Ruby’s thumb darting out to rub over hers, soothing the wound before it appeared. Just like that, Emerald knew her girlfriend had her cracked - not that it surprised her. Ruby had talent at seeing straight through the walls she put up out of habit. Maybe it was time for her to let them down.

Emerald squeezed back. It was well past lunch time, and the cafeteria was still except for the sounds of their footsteps. They sat down on opposite sides of the metallic table; Ruby’s gaze was intense, soul-searching. Quietly she sighed, put her head in her hand and drummed her fingers over the surface.

For a while, Cinder had been her everything. Now she knew she hadn’t been saved, that she’d been pulled from one fire and thrown into another - Hazel had confirmed as much, that Cinder had recruited people of specific circumstances to test their reactions to the horrible concoctions they created. It was hard to believe, though, when Cinder had seemed such a light at the end of her long, lonely tunnel. When she’d been so kind. She wasn’t sure she’d ever truly believe Cinder felt nothing more for her than she did any of the countless other subjects that passed through WTCH Lab’s doors.

“I was stuck before Cinder found me. My foster parents… they were nice, but after a while they wanted to get rid of me. There wasn’t enough food for their real family. I panicked. I locked them in the bedroom, with a chair up against the door, until I could convince them. But I didn’t realise the kid was bit. They all died, and I didn’t know what to do. I felt so guilty. I just… stayed. I ate all the food we’d saved, then started looking for more on my own. And I had these horrible nightmares about it, even after I left, just the sound of them scratching at the door, trying to escape. I thought Cinder saved me from that. I thought I owed her everything.”

She’d never met anyone who could listen like Ruby. Her big silver eyes stared unblinking, absorbing every word, every dark secret she shared. Emerald clasped her hands on the table, rubbing them together in her anxiousness.

“I don’t know how I feel about her any more. I guess that’s why I can’t go with you.”

“It’s not black and white, Em,” Ruby said. Her hands enclosed around hers, small and cold from her time spent in the graveyard. “She was important to you. It’s not dumb if you still care about her. And it’s definitely not dumb to be sad about what you had to do. But you __did__  have to do it.”

“I know.”

Slowly, she was coming to terms with it.

Ruby pressed kisses over her knuckles and grinned her heart-melting grin. “You don’t have to come with me. I let them know how you’re doing anyway.”

“You talk about me?”

“Uhh, only all the time.”

God, she was adorable.

“You better be planning on marrying my daughter, touching her like that.”

Taiyang ruffled Ruby’s hair as he passed, headed straight for the kitchen. Now Ruby only rolled her eyes at his teasing. Emerald no longer felt the need to run and hide. He was nice, if not unrelenting in his tormenting,  and he almost seemed to like her - at least, he’d warmed to her faster than he had Mercury, though recently even he had found his way into the father’s good books somehow.

“Are you girls hungry?”  

“Nah. I ate earlier.”

“Me too.”

“Damn it. Someone took all the bread…”

It only took the end of the world to finally find Emerald a home.

A glint through the window caught her eye, a reflection from a truck waiting at their gates.

 

* * *

 

A crowd had gathered at Atlas’s gates, her friends grouped together in the unforgiving cold. Blake’s arms draped around Weiss’s shoulders in front of her, chin rest atop of her head, hands rubbing up and down her girlfriend’s arms in an attempt to fight off the chill that bit them all, Winter stood primly beside them. Mercury leant on his crutches, Yang close enough for their arms touch, and she tore her eyes away from him when she saw Ruby and Emerald approach, waving urgently through the air as if they might have missed them.

From the truck Nora bounded like a static ball of excitement, barrelling towards them until her vice-like grip found Ruby’s shoulders. She stumbled back, blinking at her manic wide eyes in confusion.

“Sun got bit!”

The hum of conversation trailed off, silence falling over them. The rest of her team emptied out, Ren, followed by Neptune, and finally Sun grinning, as well as the day he’d left. Neptune helped him down, his step hesitant on one leg. Though Ruby’s stomach had dropped, something tentative and hopeful rose up in its place. Sun’s laughter was booming in the wide, empty courtyard, echoing back and doubling itself infectiously. It caught, them joining him before they even fully understood why.

“When!?”

He spread his free arm out towards them, holding up his fingers as he counted.

Four days since he’d been bit, and he was doing just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this only took a year and four months of my life! In Ruin never turned out exactly as I'd hoped, but I had fun for the most part, and I hope you did too (I'm sorry I know you didn't I killed too many people). This was the first time I'd ever written something so... grim, and I imagine it will be the last. Onto better and brighter things! I already have two more 'long' fics in the works, and you'll see some short stuff from me during G&G week very soon!
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who commented on this fic, or let me know that they enjoyed it. It really helped when I was struggling and beating myself up over it. Special thanks to [Adox](http://fanaticalparadox.tumblr.com) for all the art they spoiled me with and [Gracie](http://dropthegraceart.tumblr.com) for the pep talks, and also to [Yannie](http://colourmesarcastic.tumblr.com) and [Kael](http://icecreamquinn.tumblr.com) for listening to me plot this out loud and encouraging me to write it lmao.


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